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Beacon Xtgbts 



V[axims of Cardinal Gibbons 



SELECTED AND ARRANGED 
BY 

CORA PAYNE SHRIVER 




JOHN MURPHY COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 
BALTIMORE NEW YORK 

Printers to the Holy See 



Copyright. 1911. 
By John Muephx Company. 



^1 



LC Control Number 




t:mp96 031786 



TraS LITTLE BOOK IS OFFERED 

TO THE PUBLIC 
AS A TRIBUTE OF REVERENCE AND AFFECTION 
FOB OUR BELOVED CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP, 
WHO IN COMPLETING 

IS LOVED AND VENERATED THROUGHOUT THE LAND, 
AS MISSIONARY PRIEST, 
ZEALOUS PASTOR OF SOULS, 
WISE AND PRUDENT BISHOP AND ILLUSTRIOUS CARDINAL; 
WITH THE HOPE 
THAT THESE DAILY MAXIMS, 
SXLECTED FROM HIS WRITINGS AND REFLECTED IN HIS LIFE, 
MAY BE INDEED FOR ALL 

Sharon EtgljtB 

TO WARN AGAINST THE PERILS OF TIME 
AND GUIDE THE TRAVELER TO BIS ETERNAL HOME. 



Maxims of Cardinal Gibbons 



JANUARY 1st 

EHOLD the sublime model that 
is placed before us ! It is not man, 
nor angel, nor archangel, but Jesus 
Christ the Son of God, "Who is 
the brightness of His glory and the figure of 
His substance." 

JANUARY 2d 

THE example of our Divine Founder, Jesus 
Christ, the sublime moral lessons He has 
taught us, the sacraments He has instituted — 
all tend to our sanctification. They all concen- 
tre themselves in our soul like so many heavenly 
rays, to enlighten and inflame it with the fire of 
devotion. 








MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JANUARY 3d 

OUR sanctification and salvation do not de- 
pend upon extraordinary achievements, but 
upon the faithful discharge of our ordinary 
actions, which usually escape public obser- 
vation. 

JANUARY 4th 

NEVER do you approach nearer to God 
than when you alleviate the sorrows of oth- 
ers. Never do you prove yourselves to be the 
children of your Heavenly Father more effectu- 
ally, than when you bring sunshine to hearts 
darkened by the clouds of adversity. Never do 
you perform a deed more like to the creative 
act of the Almighty, than when you cause the 
flowers of joy and gladness to bloom in souls 
that were desolate and barren before. 



6 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JAXUARY 5th 

WE are social beings; we were created to 
live in society. No man is sufficient unto 
himself. We are all mutually and reciprocally 
dependent on one another, just as the organs of 
our body are sustained by one another. As an 
injury to one organ involves a shock to the 
entire human system, so should the community 
at large feel a practical sympathy for their fel- 
low-beings in any grievance by which they may 
be oppressed. 

JANUARY 6th 

WHEN I exhort you to virtue, to chastity, 
to patience, to charity and justice, my 
words are clothed with authority, because they 
are spoken in the name of Jesus. That name 
gives force to my words. I shelter myself be- 
hind it as an impregnable rampart. I stand 
upon it as on a rock — I lean upon it as upon an 
immovable column. 



7 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JAXUARY 7th 



1CARE Rct how limited may be your re- 
sources, nor how circumscribed your influ- 
ence, you have a personal mission from God in 
the Christian commonwealth, and you can ex- 
ert some good in your day and generation. 

JAXUARY Sth 

\ MONG the blessings and enjoyments of 



Xl.this life, there are few that can be compared 
in value to the possession of a faithful friend. 




8 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JANUARY 9th 

FRIENDSHIP has certain essential charac- 
teristics without which it is unworthy of the 
name. The basis of true friendship is self-sac- 
rifice, disinterestedness, truth, virtue and con- 
stancy. You may have friends who possess 
these qualities of friendship, but Jesus Christ 
alone possesses them in a perfect degree. 

JANUARY 10th 

A JOYOUS disposition amid the vicissi- 
tudes of daily life I regard as the highest 
form of Christian philosophy. The cheerfulness 
I have in mind is the fruit of innocence and 
charity, and therefore to enjoy this gift we must 
have a pure heart before God and the milk of 
human kindness for our fellow-beings. 







MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JANUARY 11th 

AS soon as our soul is freed from the body, 
soaring heavenward like a bird released 
from its cage, its vision is at once marvelously 
enlarged. It requires neither eyes to see, nor 
ears to hear, but beholds all things in God as 
in a mirror. 

JANUARY 12th 

OF all the virtues that shine forth in the life of 
our Divine Saviour, there is none so promi- 
nent, none so conspicuous as his compassion for 
human suffering. On every leaf of the Gospel 
that golden word mercy shines forth, bright- 
ening every page, cheering every heart. 



10 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIB BON 8 



JANUARY 13th 

THERE is not a single unrepented evil 
thought, deliberately entertained, from the 
moment we came to the use of reason till the 
hour of our death, which shall not be recorded 
against us in the Book of Life. 

JANUARY 14th 

DIVINE revelation inculcates the sublime 
and consoling truth that Almighty God 
never surrenders for a moment the moral gov- 
ernment of the world, that an over-ruling Provi- 
dence, **which reacheth from end to end might- 
ily, and ordereth all things sweetly," controls 
all human events, and makes them subservient 
to His eternal decrees, and consequently that 
nothing can happen to us against His will. 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



JANUARY 15 th 

EVERY one in lawful command, whether 
he be civil magistrate or military officer, or 
employer, is clothed with Divine authority and 
is God's representative. In submitting to those 
set over you, you are obeying not man, but 
God. It is this principle that ennobles obedi- 
ence; for obedience is not an act of servility to 
man but of homage to God. 

JANUARY 16th 

ANEW decree of faith which the Church 
formulates from time to time does not imply 
a fresh doctrine superadded to her creed, but 
rather emphasizes and vindicates an old dog- 
ma, because it happened to be called in ques- 
tion. The new decree develops and brings 
into light a truth that was implicitly con- 
tained in the deposit of revelation. 



12 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JANUARY 17th 

I CAN declare without fear of contradiction 
that there is no class of Christians that enjoys 
a higher degree of moral independence, con- 
sistent with their submission to God's law, 
than the members of the Catholic Church; for 
they are directed in the path of duty not by the 
ever-changing ipse dixit of an irresponsible 
teacher, but by the unchangeable law of God. 



JANUARY 18th 

HOW immense is the distance between 
God's treatment of a repentant sinner and 
man's conduct towards an offending brother! 



IS 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JANUARY 19th 

HOW consoling the thought that in the all- 
important afiair of salvation sinners have to 
deal, not with an earthly tribunal where in the 
name of justice, the culprit is often over- 
whelmed with passionate denunciation, but 
that they are presented before a heavenly 
Judge, who has all the clemency and magna- 
nimity of a God ! 



JANIJARY 20th 

HAPPY are they who believe with an un- 
shaken faith that Christ constituted the 
Church the guardian of His revelation and the 
infallible interpreter of its meaning. 



14 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JANUARY 21st 
OTHING can happen to you without the 



-1- 1 will of God. All those temporal evils, such 
as physical pains and mental sorrows, whether 
they proceed directly from the malice of men 
or from what we call accidents, are ordained 
by the Almighty, or are permitted by Him. 
What we call accidents are but links in the 
chain of our immortal destiny. For if even a 
sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our 
heavenly Father's will, surely no misfortune 
shall befall us without His consent. 




IS 



MAXIMS OF CARDiyiL GIBBOXS 



JAXrARY 22d 

IT is especially to those who exercise benevo- 
lence towards suffering humanity that God 
promises the reward of eternal life. It is a cir- 
cumstance worthy of note that, when our 
Sa\'iour refers to the dread day when He shall 
appear in His majesty to judge the living and 
the dead, He singles out the practice of com- 
passion to our suffering brethren as the virtue 
that %\'ill secure for us an eternal recompense. 

JANUARY 23d 

RELIGION and Science, like Mary and 
Martha, are sisters, though engaged in dif- 
ferent pursuits. Science, like Martha, is en- 
gaged in material pursuits. Religion, like 
Mary, is kneeling at the feet of our Lord. 



36 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JANUARY 24th 

PRAYER is the noblest and most sublime 
act in which man can be engaged, because 
it exercises the highest faculties of the soul, the 
intellect and the will, and brings us in communi- 
cation with the greatest of all beings — with 
God Himself. 

JANUARY 25th 

THE Jews to whom our Lord preached had 
a great admiration for Him; yet few of 
them were worthy of becoming His disciples, 
because they refused to accept all his teach- 
ings. 



17 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JANUARY 26th 

ST. JAMES, the Apostle, says: "Whoever 
shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one 
thing is guilty of all," for the observance of 
the others will not avail him unto salvation. 
Now God demands the homage of our intel- 
lect as well as of our will, and as we displease 
the God of holiness by keeping all the law, but 
offending in one point, so we displease the God 
of truth by accepting all the truths of revela- 
tions, but rejecting one. 



18 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBOyS 



JANUARY 27th 

REMEMBER that nothing is so essential 
to the salvation of your immortal soul as the 
gift of faith. Let not, therefore, the fear of 
offending friends, nor the persecutions of men, 
nor the loss of earthly goods, nor any other tem- 
poral calamity deter you from investigating and 
embracing the true religion, *'for our present 
tribulation, which is momentary and light, 
worketh for us above measure exceedingly an 
eternal weight of glory." 

May God give you light to see the truth, 
and, having seen it, may He give you courage 
and grace to embrace it. 



M LXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JANUARY 28th 

CHRIST'S mission on earth was to establish 
a triple peace in the hearts of men — peace 
with God by the observance of His command- 
ments, peace with our fellow-men by the prac- 
tice of justice and charity, and peace within 
our own breasts by keeping our passions sub- 
ject to reason, and our reason in harmony with 
the Divine law. 

JANUARY S9th 

THE saints were composed of the same ma- 
terial as you are made of, and it was only 
by determined efforts that they conquered their 
rebellious nature. Witness St. Francis de 
Sales. He was naturally of an impetuoux* and 
choleric humor, but after a labor of twenty 
years he acquired so complete a control over 
himself as to deserve to be called the meekest 
of men. 



20 



MAXIM8 OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JANUARY 30th 

AMONG the various titles given to our 
Saviour in the Gospels there is none that 
inspires more love and confidence, or that more 
adequately portrays His beneficent mission on 
earth than the appellation of the Good Shep- 
herd. He is, indeed, the ideal Shepherd, and 
the more all pastors of souls imitate this Divine 
model, the nearer they approach to perfection. 

JANUARY 31st 

OUR Lord Himself has never ceased to rule 
personally over His Church. It is time 
enough for little men to take charge of the ship 
when the great Captain abandons the helm. 



21 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



FEBRUARY 1st 

HE revealed word of God is the 
constitution of the Church. This 
is the Magna Charta of our Chris- 
tian Hberties. The Pope is the 
official guardian of our religious constitution, 
as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is 
the guardian of our civil constitution. 

FEBRUARY 2d 

THE Mother of Jesus exercises throughout 
the Christian commonwealth that hallow- 
ing influence which a good mother wields over 
the Christian family. 




22 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 

FEBRUARY 3d 

NOTHING short of an infallible author- 
ity should satisfy you, when it is a question 
of steering your course to Eternity. On this 
vital point there should be no conflict of opinion 
among those who guide you. There should 
be no conjecture. But there must be always 
some one at the helm whose voice gives assur- 
ance amid the fiercest storms that **all is well/' 

FEBRUARY 4th 

RELIGIOUS discussions are not an evil in 
themselves. On the contrary, they are an 
evidence of a healthy mental activity, a proof of 
zeal for the cause of truth. But in order that 
they may be useful and edifying, the parties 
engaged in them should be actuated solely by a 
love for truth. 



23 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 
FEBRUARY 5th 

MEDITATION on the life of Christ, and 
on the words of Holy Scripture inculcat- 
ing humility, is an excellent means of acquiring 
that virtue; but hard knocks of humiliation are 
better still. The one instructs in the theory, the 
other in the practice of humility. As patience 
is acquired by suffering, and science by study, 
so is humility learned by humiliation. 

FEBRUARY 6th 

/^F all the blessings which a merciful Re- 



v/deemer has conferred upon us in this world, 
I cannot conceive any gift comparable to the 
possession of a strong and luminous belief in a 
Divine revelation — faith in God and in Jesus 
Christ, an abiding faith in the verity of His 
Gospel message, and in the blessed promises of 
eternal life. I would not exchange a single 
article of the Creed for all the treasures of the 
United States. 




24 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



FEBRUARY 7th 

OUR Saviour did not blame Thomas for 
opening his mind and expressing his honest 
doubt upon the fact of the Resurrection; but 
He gently reasoned with him, and removed 
that doubt by a palpable argument. 

FEBRUARY 8th 

CHRIST is the only living force that can re- 
generate society. He is the only genuine so- 
cial reformer. The nation is sick, and the mal- 
ady is all the more dangerous because the pa- 
tient is unconscious of the disease. We are so 
intoxicated by material prosperity that we are 
become indifferent to the higher aspirations of 
the soul. 



25 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



FEBRUARY 9th 

IT is surely rash to reject a fact of Christian 
faith on the sole ground that it appears out 
of harmony with recognized laws, or is not con- 
firmed by the experience or observation of 
mankind. A man should have some acquain- 
tance with the unseen world before undertak- 
ing to pass judgment on the phenomena that 
govern it. 

FEBRUARY 10th 

IF you would be perfect, study and imitate 
the life of Christ as it is presented to you in 
the pages of the Gospel. That, contemplating 
your Saviour you may admire Him; admiring, 
you may love Him; loving Him, you may 
embrace Him; embracing, you may imitate 
Him, and thus you will become more con- 
formable to that heavenly model who is the 
**splendor of God's glory and the figure of His 
substance." 



26 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



FEBRUARY 11th 

THE Catholic Church takes hold of man as 
God has created him, with all his gifts and 
attributes; she appeals primarily to the light of 
reason, the dominant faculty of his soul; but 
she appeals also to his heart, his imagination 
and sensibility, those lesser lights which en- 
circle reason's imperial throne; and he who 
upbraids her for arousing these faculties up- 
braids the Author of our being Who created 
them. 

FEBRUARY 12th 

ANGELS fell as well as man — Lucifer fell 
as well as Adam. Still Jesus did not take 
on Him angelic nature that He might redeem 
fallen angels, but He assumed human nature, 
that He might redeem fallen man. 



27 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



FEBRUARY 13 th 

WHATEVER love or foresight or tender 
devotion is found in an earthly father is 
but a faint ray of the sunlight that beams from 
the heart of your heavenly Father. Parental 
prudence is the shadowy humaji counterpart of 
Divine Providence. 

FEBRUARY 14th 

WE all are, or ought to be, pupils in the 
school of Christ, preparing ourselves dur- 
ing this life of probation to receive a diploma of 
sanctity which will admit us to the Kingdom of 
Heaven. 



88 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



FEBRUARY 15th 

TRUTH is the golden coin with God's 
image stamped upon it, that circulates 
among men of all nations and tribes and tongues 
and peoples; its standard value never changes 
nor depreciates. 

FEBRUARY 16th 

COUNTLESS multitudes of hungering souls 
are following our Saviour today, as they fol- 
lowed Him of old in the desert and are receiv- 
ing from Him the bread of consolation. O, 
how many a desolate heart cries out to Him in 
its anguish with Peter and says: **Lord, to 
whom shall we go but to Thee? Thou hast 
the words of eternal life." 



29 



MAXIMA OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



FEBRUARY 17th 

WHAT are afflictions, if patiently en- 
dured, but the raw material out of which 
we can weave the royal robe that we shall de- 
serve to wear at the banquet of the great King? 



FEBRUARY 18th 

EVERY blessing we enjoy in the order of 
nature or grace is a gratuitous bounty of our 
Creator; **Every perfect gift is from above, 
coming down from the Father of Lights." 



80 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



FEBRUARY 19th 

REMEMBER that the moral Ruler of the 
world holds the reins of government, which 
He never surrenders — so long as He guides 
and controls the chariot that carries you and 
your fortunes, happen what will, you have 
nothing to fear, provided you put your trust in 
Him. "Hope in the Lord and do good, and 
He will give you the desires of your heart.'* 

FEBRUARY SOth 

THE food of the word of God is as nutritive 
to your soul when furnished by the hum- 
blest of God's servants as if it were offered by 
an angel. 

FEBRUARY Slst 

REMEMBER that every sermon you hear 
is a special grace, and that every grace 
abused is a crime. 



di 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



FEBRUARY 22d 

THE Holy Father may live and die in the 
catacombs as the early Pontiffs did for the 
first three centuries. He may be dragged from 
his see and perish in exile, like the Martins, the 
Gregories and the Piuses. He may wander a 
penniless pilgrim like Peter himself. Rome 
may sink below the Mediterranean; but the 
Chair of Peter will stand and Peter will live in 
his successors. 

FEBRUARY 23d 

THE whole history of Jesus Christ is marked 
by mercy and compassion for suffering hu- 
manity. From the moment of His incarnation 
till the hour of His death, every thought and 
word and act of His Divine life was directed 
towards the alleviation of the ills and miseries 
of fallen man. 



32 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBOl^S 



FEBRUARY 24th 

MARRIAGE is the most inviolable and 
the most irrevocable contract that can ex- 
ist. Every human compact but this can be law- 
fully dissolved. Nations may be justified in abro- 
gating treaties with each other. Merchants may 
dissolve partnerships. Brothers will eventually 
leave the parental roof and di\ide their inher- 
itance. Friends, like Abraham and Lot, may 
part company. But the marriage bond can 
never be dissolved except by death. 



SB 



MAXIMS OF CARDIXAL GIBBONS 



FEBRUARY 25th 

CHRISTIAN wives and mothers, what a 
debt of gratitude you owe to the Catholic 
Church for the honorable position you now hold 
in family and social life. If you are no longer 
the slaves, but the mistresses of your house- 
holds ; if you are no longer regarded as tenants 
at will, but the queens of the domestic king- 
dom and the peers of your husbands, you owe 
your emancipation to the Church of Christ, 
that contended for your rights at the cost of 
her blood, 

FEBRUARY 26th 

A CHURCH that is universal must have a 
universal tongue, whilst a national church, 
or a church whose members speak one and the 
same language, and whose doctrines conven- 
iently change to suit the times, can safely adopt 
the vernacular tongue in its liturgy. 



34 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



FEBRUARY S7th 
MONG the various dogmas of the Catholic 



jTLChurch there is none which rests on stronger 
Scriptural authority than the doctrine of the 
Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy 
Eucharist. You tell me it is a mystery above 
your comprehension — a mystery, indeed. A 
religion that rejects a revealed truth because it 
is incomprehensible contains in itself the seeds 
of dissolution, and will end in rationalism. 




FEBRUARY 28th 



THE sacrifice of the Mass is identical with 
that of the Cross, both having the same vic- 
tim and High Priest— Jesus Christ, 



35 



MAXIM8 OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH 1st 




p save your soul and become a 
shining light in God's kingdom, 
you are not called upon to make 
pilgrimages to the Holy Land, 
you are not obliged to visit the Tombs of the 
Apostles, or to work miracles, or to shed your 
blood for the faith, or to convert nations; but 
you are merely required to maintain with fidel- 
ity the post assigned to you by Providence. 



MARCH 2d 



SUFFERING is the law of human life. No 
man can escape it, whether he be pope or 
king, emperor or president. But if tribulation is 
a law of human life, it is also, thank God, a law 
and a condition of Christian progress and per- 
fection. It is a means ordained by Heaven for 
our sanctification and salvation. 



86 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



IVIARCH 3d 

IT is a fearful thing to receive the grace of 
God in vain I According to the testimony of 
Christ Himself, it is a sign of reprobation to 
have a distaste or aversion for the word of 
God. He said to the Jews, **Ye hear not the 
word of God, because ye are not of God." 

MARCH 4th 

THE fault with most of us is that we take a 
peculative view of eternal life. We live 
and act as if our existence closed with the 
grave. 



S7 



MAXIMS OF CARD IX AL GIBBONS 



MARCH 5th 

AS the Kfe and health of your body require 
that it be sustained by daily food and exer- 
cise, so do the life and growth of faith demand 
that it be nourished by daily prayer and the 
observance of God's precepts. If it is not thus 
nurtured, it will languish and die. 

MARCH eth 

CONSCIENCE enlightens me on the exist- 
ence of a God who is all-seeing and to 
whom I am responsible for my deliberate acts. 
There is no moral action of mine on which He 
does not pronounce a decision. There is no 
crime I commit against which He does not 
give an immediate sentence. His court is never 
adjourned. He never nods on the bench. 



38 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH 7th 

THE Redeemer of mankind has never con- 
ferred a greater temporal blessing on the 
human race than by ennobling and sanctifying 
labor, and by rescuing it from, the stigma of 
degradation that had been branded upon it. 
The primeval curse attached to labor has been 
obliterated by the toilsome life of Jesus Christ. 
He has shed a halo around the workshop and 
has lightened the mechanic's tools by assuming 
the trade of an artisan. 



39 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAUCH 8th 

KNOW then, my brethren, that perfection 
is made up of little things well performed. 
Michael Angelo was once engaged in exe- 
cuting a marble statue. The patron one day 
called on the artist in his studio and was sur- 
prised to find how slowly he had progressed in 
his work. ^^What have you done," he asked, 
^^since I was last here?'' ^'Oh,'' replied the 
sculptor, ^^I have retouched this part, polished 
that ; I have softened this feature, have brought 
out that muscle, have given more expression to 
that lip, more energy to that limb." '^But 
these are trifles," said his patron. ''Yes, but 
trifles go to make perfection, and perfection, I 
assure you, is no trifle." 

Remember, then, that those little acts of de- 
votion, of Christian courtesy and charity which 
you are daily called on to practice, may be 
trifles, but they are trifles which form the per- 
fect man, and a perfect man is the noblest work 
of God. 



40 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



MARCH 9th 

RESOLVE during this holy season of Lent 
to set aside a certain time each day or night 
which you will devote to the reading of a re- 
ligious book. Above all other books, choose 
the Sacred Scriptures. 

MARCH 10th 

THE holy Scripture is your weapon in time 
of war, your companion in time of 
peace. 



41 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL 01 B BON 8 



MARCH 11th 



OOK today upon the face of your Christ 



JL-'and let the conduct of our Lord inspire you 
to be a faithful Christian. Be ever faithful to 
conscience, to principle and to duty. Above 
all, be ever loyal to your religious convictions, 
through honor and dishonor, through good re- 
port and evil report. This is the Christian 
manhood which distinguishes the hero from the 
coward, the martyr from the apostate. 



HE Christian dispensation excels the Jew- 



JL ish law, not only by the breadth and clear- 
ness of its revelation, but also by the sublime 
standard of its moral teaching. The law of 
Moses governed the exterior conduct of man; 
the law of Christ controls the interior move- 
ments of his heart. 




MARCH 12th 




42 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH 13th 

THE timely remembrance of an appropriate 
sentence of Holy Writ is a tower of 
strength in the hour of temptation or despon- 
dency. 

MARCH 14th 

I SEE no contradiction between loyalty to 
Christ and allegiance to our civil rulers. I 
see nothing in the Constitution that is opposed 
to the Gospel, and I see nothing in the Gospel 
that is at variance with the Constitution. 



48 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH 15th 

VOLUNTARY self-murder is not only a 
violation of the Divine law, but is also a 
crime against society. We are social beings. 
We owe a duty to the Commonwealth as well 
as to ourselves. Human society may be com- 
pared to a grand army, every member of which 
has a special place and mission assigned to him 
by his sovereign Commander. To abandon the 
post of duty entrusted to a sentinel is regarded 
by the military code as a most cowardly act, 
to be punished with extreme vigor. What less 
does the suicide do than basely abandon the 
situation assigned to him in the warfare of life? 



MAXIMS OF CARDU^AL GIBBONS 



MARCH 16th 

HOW are we to pay allegiance to Christ our 
King? By consecrating to Him the two 
noblest faculties of our souls — our intellect and 
our will. We submit our intellect to Him by 
an abiding faith in Him, and our will by ob- 
serving His law and loving Him. 

MARCH ITth 

THE upright Christian believes not only in 
the sanctity of human suffering, but also in 
its heavenly recompense when endured for 
Christ's sake. 



! 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH 18th 
EVER did any man speak as Jesus spoke. 



-L ^ As far as we have any record of His utter- 
ances, the most admired discourse He ever de- 
livered was the Sermon on the Mount. But 
even the Sermon on the Mount yields in force 
and pales before the Sermon on the Cross. 
There we find eloquence in action ; and if our 
Lord had restricted His mission on earth to the 
preaching of the Word, like the Scribes and 
Pharisees, without illustrating it by the splen- 
dor of His example, He would never have 
caused that mighty revolution which has 
changed the face of the world ; nor would He 
be adored today by millions of disciples from 
the rising to the setting of the sun. 




46 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH 19th 

THE sincere adorers and lovers of our Lord 
Jesus Christ look with reverence on every 
object with which He was associated, and they 
conceive an affection for every person that was 
near and dear to Him on earth. The closer 
the intimacy of those persons v/ith our Saviour, 
the holier do they appear in our estimation, just 
as those planets which revolve around the sun 
partake most of its light and heat. 

MARCH 30th 

A VISIT every day to our Lord in the 
Blessed Sacrament dissipates the worldly 
mist that may have enveloped you, and brings 
you nearer to the God of Light. It sobers the 
senses, moderates the abnormal activity of the 
mind, calms the passions, sweetens the labors, 
lightens the burdens of life, and diffuses around 
you a spirit of heavenly peace and tranquillity. 



47 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH 21st 



IF I were asked what is the underlying prin- 
ciple of the Gospel, what is the essential 
characteristic of the religion of Jesus Christ, I 
would say, it is love. 

MARCH S2d 
l[T[rE are told that Jesus wept at the tomb of 



» ▼ Lazarus. We read not that he ever 
laughed. And yet those tears of Jesus have 
brought more joy and solace to the human heart 
than all the mirth-provoking books that ever 
were written. Jesus wept, to show that He had 
not only a Divine Personality, but also a human 
heart, full of human sympathy for the suffer- 
ing and sorrowing. 




48 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH 23d 

WE are known by the name of Catholic. 
There is a power in this name, and an 
enthusiasm aroused by it akin to the patriotism 
awakened by the flag of one's country. 

MARCH 24th 

THE Catholic Church teaches nothing but 
what has been revealed by God, or is plainly 
deducible from revelation. All truth comes 
from God, as all light proceeds from the sun. 
He is the author of natural, as well as of re- 
vealed truth. One truth can never contradict 
another. No truth of revelation can ever be 
opposed to any truth of science. Natural and 
revealed truth always are and always must be 
in harmony and shed light upon one another, 
just as one star throws light upon another and 
expands our view of the firmament above us. 



49 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH 25th 

HONOR is he worthy of whom the King 
hath a mind to honor." The King of 
Kings hath honored Mary, the Eternal Father 
hath honored her by adopting her as His child 
of predilection. God the Son hath honored her 
by selecting her above all other women to be 
His mother. The Holy Ghost hath honored 
her by making her soul and body His living 
temple. And let it always be borne in mind 
that the homage we pay to the mother re- 
dounds to the Son. For whatever grace, or 
virtue or power, or influence she possesses is 
all referred to Him. Just as the moon derives 
all her light from the sun, so does Mary derive 
all her gifts of nature and grace from Jesus 
Christ, the Eternal Sun of Justice. 



50 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH Seth 

THE wisdom of God is specially manifested 
in the adoption of means utterly dispropor- 
tioned to the end to be attained, so that the 
world might be convinced that Christianity is 
the work, not of man, but of God, and that all 
the glory should redound to Him. 

IMARCH 27th 

THE Catholic Church with that wisdom 
which is the fruit of age and experience, as 
well as of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has 
an intimate knowledge of human nature. She 
knows that an abstract religion is not only in- 
adequate to our wants, but is intrinsically im- 
possible. It must be embodied in some forms, 
and must have some outward expression, for 
we are men and not angels. 



51 



MAXIMA OF CARDINAL OIBB0N8 

MARCH 28th 

HOW impatient we are of contradiction or 
unfriendly criticism ! Let us learn a lesson 
of humility from the God of Wisdom, who be- 
came a fool for our sakes, that He might heal 
our pride of intellect. 

MARCH S9th 

CONSECRATE today to your royal Mas- 
ter your intellect by a firm belief in Him. 
Consecrate your will by observing His law and 
by conforming your will to the Divine Will. 
Make oblation of your heart by loving Him. 
Consecrate your memory by recalling His mani- 
fold mercies to you. Dedicate to Him the whole 
kingdom of the soul with all its powers, so 
that you can say with the Apostle: **I live now, 
not I, but Christ Kveth in me.*' 



52 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MARCH 30th 

THE perfection of sanctity consists in the 
love of God, for **Iove is the fulfilling of the 
law," and the perfection of the love of God is 
found in an absolute conformity of our will to 
the Divine Will. 

MARCH 31st 

DO we seek a proof of God*s existence? 
The great temple of Nature around us pro- 
claims His being and His creative power. His 
name is stamped on every star in the heavens, 
on every leaf of the forest, and on every grain 
of sand on the seashore. They all silently but 
eloquently cry out with the Psalmist: "Thou, 
O Lord hast made us and not we ourselves." 



53 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



APRIL 1st 

ABOR Is prayer when it is conse- 
crated to God. The same Holy 
Spirit that hallows the contempla- 
tive life of Mary, spiritualizes also 
the active life of Martha. 

APRIL 2d 

JESUS Christ, hanging from the cross, has 
drawn to Himself a mightier host than ever 
followed the standard of Caesar or Hannibal. 
Other leaders have captured cities. Jesus has 
captured the citadel of the heart. 




64 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 

APRIL 3d 

CHRIST has left us a code of legislation in 
the Gospels. These moral precepts are im- 
mutable, because they are founded upon the 
eternal principles of truth and justice. They 
have already stood the test of two thousand 
years ; they are as vigorous and authoritative to- 
day as when they came from the lips of their 
Divine Founder. And they will be binding on 
the conscience of men as long as human society 
itself shall last. 

APRIL 4th 

BE content with your position in life. While 
earnestly aiming to better your economic 
and social condition do not be devoured by dis- 
quietude and envy towards those who are 
more favored than you are. Earthly happi- 
ness and real dignity do not depend upon the 
accumulation of wealth and honor. 



55 



Maxims of cardinal gibbons 



APRIL 5th 



I FEEL in the depth of my heart that, in 
possessing Catholic faith, I hold a treasure 
compared with which all things earthly are 
but dross. 

APRIL eth 
TT7E are commanded by Jesus, suffering and 



t f dying for us to imitate Him by the cruci- 
fixion of our flesh, and by acts of daily mor- 
tification. ^^If any one,'^ he says, ^Vill come 
after Me, let hJm deny himself, and take up his 
cross daily and follow Me.'^ 




69 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



APRIL 7th 

MY dear brethren, greet your King with all 
the simple faith, the glowing love and pious 
enthusiasm with which He was welcomed by 
His disciples on the first Palm Sunday. Unite 
today with the millions of your fellow-Chris- 
tians throughout the world and say with them : 
"Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord, to our God, 
out of every tribe and nation and people and 
tongue, and hast made us to our God a king- 
dom, and we shall reign." 

APRIL 8th 

OH, ye patient, long-suffering Christians, ye 
who endure adversity with heroic fortitude, 
you carry a precious jewel in your head unseen 
by men. That jewel is the bright ray of God's 
approving smile, transposing you to the like- 
ness of Him who is called "the Man of Sor- 
rows/' 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



APRIL 9th 

IF you would experience the mercy of the 
Lord you must, like Magdalen, kneel in spirit 
at the feet of Jesus, and bathe them with tears 
of compunction. If you wish, like the Publi- 
can, to return to your house in the friendship 
of God, you must, like him, make an humble 
confession of your sins. If you desire to be 
reconciled to your Eternal Father, you mast, 
like the Prodigal, break your chains of bond- 
age and arise and go to Him, 

APRIL 10th 

NEVER did the most pathetic sermon on the 
Passion enkindle such heartfelt love or evoke 
such salutary resolutions as have been produced 
by the silent spectacle of our Saviour hanging 
on the cross. 



§8 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



APREL 11th 

IT IS a remarkable fact that while women have 
been found habitually ministering to our Lord 
in His public life, paying homage to Him 
and adoring Him, and while the daughters of 
Jerusalem are seen weeping for Him, bewailing 
and lamenting as He is led to Calvary — I say 
it is a remarkable fact that, while they thus 
honor Christ there is not recorded in the Gos- 
pels a solitary instance of any woman ever of- 
fering an insult or indignity to Him in the whole 
course of His earthly career. 

APRIL 12th 

THERE is no exaggeration in saying that 
the hope of America is in the rising gen- 
eration, and the hope of the rising generation 
is in its Christian mothers. 



59 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



APRIL 13th 

A CHILD IS susceptible of impressions at an 
earlier age than is commonly imagined, and 
first impressions last the longest. It is therefore 
of vital interest to the child's future career 
whether the maxims of Christ or the maxims of 
the world shall be first inscribed on the tabula 
rasa of his heart. 

APRIL 14th 

WE want our children to receive an educa- 
tion that will make them not only learned, 
but pious men. We want them to be not only 
polished members of society, but also conscien- 
tious Christians. We desire for them a train- 
ing that will form their hearts as v/ell as their 
minds. We wish them to be not only men of 
the world, but, above all, men of God. 



60 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



APRIL 15th 

YOU are Christians. You glory in that name. 
You would not exchange it for all the high- 
sounding titles of kings and emperors. But do 
not forget that if this name hath its dignity, it 
hath afso annexed to it corresponding obliga- 
tions. Christian is no empty appellation, but 
one full of solemn significance. 

APRIL 16th 

JESUS CHRIST announces to you the im- 
portant truth that the glory of His resurrec- 
tion is the fruit of His passion. I mean the ac- 
cidental glory incident to His humanity; not 
the essential glory inherent in His divinity. Re- 
joice for your own sakes, since the resurrection 
of Jesus is the pledge, the hope and the precur- 
sor of your resurrection. 



81 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



APRIL 17th 

JESUS CHRIST, after having crossed the 
stormy ocean of life, after having passed 
through the narrow strait of death, has taken 
possession of a new world. He has revealed 
to you **a new heaven and a new earth," which 
were hitherto inaccessible to the human race. 
Standing on the shores of His new kingdom. 
He turns to you. He appeals to you to follow 
Him. ^^Come after Me," He says, ^^I am the 
Way. the Truth and the Life." 

APRIL 18th 

THE fulfilment of the Divine precepts is 
a proof of our friendship with Christ. 
This is an easy and a practical test. 



62 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



APRIL 19th 
RATITUDE to God is a most acceptable 



WE most influential of virtues are those that 



J- are most in request for daily use just as 
water, air, fire and light are the most essential 
elements of life and health. The precious gems 
of domestic charity hang like pearls on slender 
threads, and these threads are common civility 
and gentle manners. As religion cannot long 
subsist in the heart without the external forms 
of ceremony, so charity cannot long abide in 
the household without polite behavior and good 
breeding. 




prayer. It has been called the 



respiration of the soul. 



APRIL 20th 




63 



MAXIMS OF CABDIVAL GIBBONS 
APRIL Slst 

THE Catholic Church has always one and 
the same faith, the same form of public 
worship, the same spiritual government. As her 
doctrine and liturgy are unchangeable, she 
wishes that the language of her liturgy should 
be fixed and uniform. Faith may be called 
the jewel, and language is the casket which 
contains it. So careful is the Church of pre- 
serving the jewel intact, she will not disturb 
even the casket in which it rests. 

APKIIj 22d 

THE experience of other nations as well as 
of our own shows that it is a very great illu- 
sion to suppose that intellectual development 
is sufficient of itself to make us virtuous men, or 
that the moral status of a people is to be esti- 
mated by the v/idespread diffusion of a purely 
secular knowledge. 



64 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



APRIL 2Sd 

AS sin was the greatest evil of man, and as 
Jesus came to remove from us our greatest 
evils, He came into the world chiefly as the 
great Absolver from sin. 

APRIL 24th 

BEAUTIFUL above the sons of men does 
Jesus appear to us in his glorious transfigura- 
tion, when His face shone like the sun and His 
garments became white as snow, but far more 
beautiful is He to me when suspended from the 
cross. The crown of thorns is more comfort- 
ing to my soul than the halo that encircled His 
brow on Mount Thabor. His naked and 
bleeding body gives me more consolation than 
the splendor of His garments in His apparition 
on the Mount. 



65 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



APRIL 25th 



S the motive-power is present with the thing 



-iTLmoved, and fire with the material which it 
consumes: and the wind with the ship that it 
propels, so is God ever necessarily present with 
His works. 



WERE is an essential difference between a 



A human architect and the Divine Architect. 
When a house is constructed, it stands without 
the aid of the builder, but the works of God 
must always lean on God for support. They 
depend on Him as much for their conservation 
as they did for their creation; so that every 
fresh moment of their existence may be said to 
imply a renewed act of creation. 




APRIL 26th 




66 



MAXIMS OF CARDIAL GIBBONS 



WERE is scarcely a social or economic 



A movement of reform on foot, no matter how 
extravagant or Utopian that has not some ele- 
ment of justice to recommend it to popular fa- 
vor. If the scheme is abandoned to the control 
of fanatics, demagogues or extremists, it will de- 
ceive the masses and involve them in greater 
misery. Such living topics need discriminating 
judges to separate the wheat from the chaff. 
And who is more fitted to handle these ques- 
tions than God's Ambassador, whose conserva- 
tive spirit frowns upon all intemperate innova- 
tion, and whose Christian sympathies prompt 
him to advocate for his suffering brethren every 
just measure for the redress of grievances, and 
the mitigation of needless misery? 



APRIL S7th 




67 



MAXIMS OF CARDIAL GIBBONS 



APRIL 28th 

AS the sun at the same instant and without 
fatigue, gilds the clouds, illumines the 
mountain peak and reveals the pebbles at the 
bottom of the stream, so without effort of will 
does God observe the great and small things in 
heaven and on earth. 

APRIIi 29th 

AS we cannot fathom the depths of God's 
mercy and loving kindness, neither can we 
comprehend the immensity of the heavenly re- 
ward that is promised us, because it will be 
measured not by our merits, but by His infinite 
love. 



68 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



APRIL 30th 

LET us look at man. What a strange con- 
trast is presented by his physical and spiritual 
nature ! What a mysterious compound of cor- 
ruption and incorruption, of ignominy and 
glory, of weakness and strength, of matter and 
mind! * * * In the midst of a mortal 
body he carries an immortal soul. In the midst 
of this perishable mass he has an imperishable 
spirit. Within this frail, tottering temple there 
is a light which will never be extinguished. 
As to the past, you are finite ; as to the future, 
you are infinite in duration. 



69 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 1st 

O honor the Mother of God, who 
has been the subject of divine, an- 
gelic and saintly panegyric, is to 
us a privilege, and the privilege is 
heightened into a sacred duty when we remem- 
ber that the spirit of prophecy foretold that she 
should ever be the unceasing theme of Chris- 
tian eulogy as long as Christianity itself would 
exist. 




70 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



3fAY 2d 

I FIND Jesus and Mary together at the 
manger, together in Egypt, together in 
Nazareth, together in the temple, together at 
the Cross. I find their names side by side in 
the Apostles* Creed and the Nicene Creed. 
It is fitting both should find a place in my 
heart, and that both names should often flow 
successively from my lips. Inseparable in life 
and in death, they should not be divorced in 
my prayers. 

MAY 3d 

THE more we love our Lord, the more de- 
sirous we are to communicate with Him; 
and the more we resemble Him in our disposi- 
tions and aims of life, the more intimately will 
He manifest His friendship for us by communi- 
cating to us His heavenly secrets. 



71 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 4th 

THE perfection of sanctity consists in the 
love of God, for "love," says the Apostle, 
**is the fulfilling of the law." And the per- 
fection of the love of God consists in absolute 
conformity to His holy will. Union of heart, 
of sentiment and of will — this is the closest 
bond that can subsist between the Creator and 
the creature. 

MAY 5th 

THE influence of Mary's intercession ex- 
ceeds that of the angels, patriarchs and 
prophets in the same degree that her sanctity 
surpasses theirs. 



72 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBOXS 



MAY 6th 

WHEN this house of clay shall have crum- 
bled to dust, when this earth shall have 
ceased to be inhabited, when the sun shall 
grow dim with years and the stars shall fade 
away, even then your soul will live and move 
and have its being : it will think, remember and 
love ; for God breathed into you a living spirit, 
and that spirit, like Himself, is clothed with 
inmiortality, 

MAY Tth 

THE more I reflect on man's immortality, 
the more profoundly I am impressed with 
a sense not only of his dignity, but, still more, 
of his dread responsibility; for he is destined 
for a life of eternal happiness or eternal misery, 
and his destiny is, in a measure, in his own 
hands. 



78 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 8th 



WE home IS the primeval school. It is 



A the best, the most hallowed and the most 
potential of all academies; and the parent, es- 
pecially the mother, is the first, the most influen- 
tial and the most cherished of all teachers. 



IT is a fact worthy of record that the most 
distinguished personages that have adorned 
the Church by their apostolic virtues, or that 
have served their country by their patriotism, or 
that have shed a lustre on the home by the 
integrity of their private lives, were usually men 
who had the happiness of receiving from pious 
mothers early principles of moral rectitude. 




MAY 9th 



74 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 10th 

OBEY cheerfully those whom Providence 
has placed over you. Remember that all 
legitimate authority comes from God. 

IVIAY 11th 

THERE is no want of the soul which Chris- 
tianity does not satisfy ; there is no civiliza- 
tion that it does not enlighten and purify. It 
is broad and elastic enough to embrace all na- 
tions, and minute enough to occupy itself with 
every individual souL 



75 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 12th 

SANCTITY or integrity of Christian char- 
acter is not impossible * * * God 
never commands impossibilities. He knows 
full well what you are capable of accomplish- 
ing. He knows the frail clay of which you 
are made. Now God commands each one of 
you to be holy: **Be ye holy," He says, **for I 
the Lord your God, am holy.*' "This is the 
will of God — your sanctification." He coun- 
sels you to aim even at perfection. *'Be ye 
perfect even as your heavenly Father is per- 
fect/* 



76 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 

MAY 13th 

ENDEAVOR to pass through cares as it 
were without care. While it may be im- 
possible to prevent the mists of perplexity and 
anxiety from hovering about the imagination 
and clouding the senses, do not permit those 
vapors to ascend to the higher and more serene 
atmosphere where the soul is enthroned and 
communes in undisturbed peace with its Maker. 

MAY 14th 

OHOLY Spirit of God, reign over every 
faculty of our soul. Reign over our mind 
that we may daily meditate on Thy mercies. 
Reign over our will, that we may ever love 
Thee. Reign over our memory, that we may 
be mindful of Thy past favors. Reign over 
our imagination, and the whole range of 
thoughts. Reign over us in time and in eternity. 



77 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 15th 



MAN, by possessing a soul or spiritual sub- 
stance, partakes of the nature of angels, 
and by possessing a body, partakes of the na- 
ture of the heavenly bodies. It is, therefore, 
his privilege, as well as his duty, to offer to God 
the two-fold homage of body and soul ; in 
other words, to honor Him by internal and 
external worship. 



HE Apostles were clothed with the pow- 



successor of the Apostles, is clothed with their 
power. The exalted dignity of the Priest is 
derived not from the personal merits for which 
he may be conspicuous, but from the sublime 
functions which he is charged to* perform. 



MAY 16th 




The Priest, as the 



78 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 17th 

CHRIST is walking invisibly today on the 
troubled waters of life, as He journeyed of 
old by the Lake of Genesareth. When Peter 
beheld his Master walking on the sea, he fan- 
cied it was only an apparition. But Christ was 
there, all the same. No less truly is He mov- 
ing on the agitated ocean of the world. He is 
lifting up many a sinking soul from the sea of 
sorrow and tribulation, and saying to the 
warring elements: **Peace, be still.'* 

IMAY 18th 

WE cannot pay a higher homage to religion 
than in consecrating to the God of Truth 
our intellect, the noblest faculty of the soul, 
and in making it more worthy of the uncreated 
Wisdom by developing it to the full extent of 
our abilities. 



79 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 19th 

THERE is an intimate relation between 
reverence and obedience. It is difficult to 
obey those whom we fail to honor; while, on 
the contrary, obedience becomes agreeable 
when prompted by a spirit of respect for those 
appointed to rule over us. And we will not be 
wanting in this reverence when we regard those 
placed over us as the representatives of God. 

]VIAY 20th 

HUMBLE and earnest prayer is a source of 
light to the mind, of comfort to the heart, 
and of strength to the will. 



80 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 21st 



IF we cannot be martyrs, let us be confessors 
of the truth. If we have not the courage, 
like our Master, to endure death for its sake, 
we should at least be prepared to suffer for it 
some passing humiliation or confusion. 



OD has established in your heart the 



VJ sacred tribunal of conscience, by whose 
dictates you are bound to decide. 



MAY aSd 




81 



MAXIM 8 OF CARDINAL GIBBON 8 



MAY 23d 

YOU are children of God and heirs to His 
kingdom. When there is so much honor 
and dignity, and so grand a prospective inher- 
itance, there must be a corresponding obliga- 
tion. 

Royal children of a royal Father, let your 
brow be encircled by the halo of royal virtues! 

MAY S4th 

IF we ourselves, though sinners, can help one 
another by our prayers, how irresistible must 
be the intercession of Mary, who never grieved 
Almighty God by sin from the first moment of 
her existence till she was received by triumphant 
angels into Heaven. 



82 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



MAY 25th 

IF we are so solicitous about Mary's honor, 
it is because the "love of Christ presseth us.'* 
If we will not permit a single wreath to be 
snatched from her fair brow, it is because we 
are unwilling that a single feature of Christ's 
sacred humanity should be obscured, and be- 
cause we wish that He should ever shine forth 
in all the splendor of his glory, and clothed in 
all the panoply of his perfections. 



83 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 26th 



XPERIENCE 



sufficiently demonstrates 



•"that the better we understand the part 
which Mary has taken in the work of redemp- 
tion, the more enlightened becomes our knowl- 
edge of our Redeemer Himself, and that the 
greater our love for her, the deeper and broader 
is our devotion to Him; while experience also 
testifies that our Saviour's attributes become 
more confused and warped in the minds of a 
people, in proportion as they ignore Mary's 
relations to Him. 



HE Spirit of God is not an idle visitor, 



-I but an active Principle, continually work- 
ing within us. 



MAY 27th 




84 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 28th 

WHEREVER a child is regenerated in 
the waters of Baptism, wherever the sol- 
dier of Christ is anointed in Confirmation, 
wherever the repentant sinner appears before 
his Heavenly Father, imploring pardon for his 
sins, there is the Holy Ghost descending, oper- 
ating, cleansing and sanctifying the soul and 
making it His living tem.ple. 

MAY 29th 

GOD loves us as much as He loved the prim- 
itive Christians. Jesus Christ died for us 
as well as for them. The Holy Ghost is as 
eager to dwell in our hearts as He desired to 
reign in the hearts of the first-bom children of 
the faith. 



85 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



MAY 30th 

THE festival of Pentecost is peculiarly the 
festival of every devout soul. When you 
celebrate the descent of the Holy Ghost on the 
Apostles, you not only recall to mind an event 
which happened nineteen hundred years ago, 
but one which is daily and hourly renewed in 
the Church, and which, you may humbly hope, 
will be also renewed in yourselves by the in- 
dwelling of the Spirit within your souls. 

MAY 31st 

WE are surprised and indignant at the con- 
duct of the nine lepers, who failed to re- 
turn thanks to their Benefactor when they were 
cleansed from their leprosy. But it is more 
profitable for us to turn our thoughts to our- 
selves, and reflect that we also have been want- 
ing in due thankfulness to the Divine Healer, 
after He has washed us in His blood and 
cleansed our souls from the leprosy of sin. 



86 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 1st 

UR Saviour Jesus Christ is not 
only an historical personage who 
lived twenty centuries ago, but 
He is also a living Reality, al- 
ways dwelling with us in the Blessed Sacra- 
ment. He is our Emmanuel, our God with us. 

JUKE 2d 

EVERY day we live, every breath we 
breathe, every pulsation of our heart is a 
fresh manifestation of Divine Power and a new 
expression of Divine Mercy. 




87 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 3d 

IF we should be grateful to God for the bene- 
fit of creation, how much more beholden are 
we to Him for the supernatural gift of redemp- 
tion. If we should be thankful for our tem- 
poral life, how much more for the supernatural 
life with which He has endowed us! If we 
should be grateful that He has sent His sun to 
shine on us, how much more that He has sent 
His Holy Spirit to illumine our mind and in- 
flame our heart. 



88 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 4th 

THE miracles of Jesus were wrought to les- 
sen the sufferings and lighten the burdens 
of men. He manifested His power by going 
about doing good. There are three classes of 
persons towards whom the compassion of Christ 
was especially directed — those who were the 
victims of corporal infirmities, of mental suffer- 
ings and the poor — the very classes of people 
that are overlooked or despised by the world. 

JUIS^ 5th 

WHILE Jesus occupied Himself in bring- 
ing relief to corporal infirmities, the prin- 
cipal object of His mission was to release the 
soul from the bonds of sin. The very name 
of Jesus indicates this important truth: **Thou 
shalt call His name Jesus," says the angel, **for 
He shall save his people from their sins." 



89 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 6th 

IF Jesus Christ were to appear for a single 
day in some spot on earth, what a vast con- 
course of people of all nations and religions, as 
well as of Christians, would hasten to greet 
Him! They would gladly touch the hem of 
His garments. They would even kiss the 
ground on which He trod. But in order to 
find Him you are not obliged to cross the 
seas or to climb mountains, for in every Cath- 
olic Church and rude chapel that dots the 
surface of the globe He is present, and is * 'al- 
ways living there to make intercession for us." 



90 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 7th 



ON enlightened and zealous laity is the glory 
of the Christian Church. The most lumin- 
ous periods of the Church's History have been 
epochs conspicuous for laymen who vindicated 
the cause of Christianity by the eloquence of 
their writings, as well as by the sanctity of their 
lives. 



H, believe me, the tiara of the Pope and 



V/the mitre of the Bishop will not shine more 
brilliantly in the sight of God, nor be a safer 
passport to Heaven, than the modest cap of 
the peasant unless the jewels of virtue are set in 
them. 



JUNE 8th 




91 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 9th 

IT may be asserted as a rule that those who 
are animated by a grateful sense towards 
their earthly benefactors for favors received 
will seldom fail in thankfulness to the Divine 
Giver. 

JUNE 10th 

WE are by nature imitative beings, and we 
instinctively walk after the pattern of 
those v/ho have any authority over our con- 
duct. If that influence is beneficial, it lifts us 
up to a higher plane of virtue ; if it is pernicious, 
it lowers our moral standard. 



92 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 11th 

IN communion with God, the energies of our 
will are invigorated and our moral courage 
is strengthened. Observe with what confidence 
the child, when conscious of danger, rushes 
into the arms of its mother. There it reposes as 
in an ark of safety, its courage is renewed and 
it loses its fears. And so, when we flee with 
confidence to the arms of our Heavenly Father, 
we go forth from His presence renewed in 
strength and resolved to do what human weak- 
ness could not of itself accomplish. 



93 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 12th 



SAY not that prayer is a mark of spiritual 



v/ bondage! On the contrary, the more fre- 
quently we commune with God in prayer, the 
more we exercise our glorious prerogative as 
children of God; for surely the children enjoy 
more familiar intercourse with the father of the 
family than do the servants of the household. 



WE Spirit of God is the spirit of Light 



A As the children of Israel were conducted 
through the wilderness to the Promised Land 
by a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire 
by night, so is the Christian pilgrim guided by 
the Holy Spirit in his life's pilgrimage to his 
Promised Land of Heaven. 




JUNE 13th 




94 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JXmE 14th 



THE Holy Spirit is a spirit of Strength 
When a man is possessed by the Spirit of 
God he is animated by the heroism of the 
Apostle when he said: **I can do all things in 
Him Who strengtheneth me. Nothing deters 
or frightens him when the path of duty and 
conscience lies before him. He has the courage 
of his convictions and is uncompromising in his 
loyalty to religion. 



AITH is to the eye of the soul what the 



A. sunlight is to the eye of the body. It broad- 
ens and expands our spiritual vision. Faith 
does not supplant, but rather supplements rea- 
son. It is the highest exercise of reason. You 
might as well suppose that a man dispenses with 
his eyes in using a telescope, as that he discards 
his reason in using the instrument of faith. 



JUNE 15th 




95 



MAXIMS OF CARDiyAL GIBDOSS 



JUNE 16th 



IN the day of the Lord when He will bring 
to light the hidden things of darkness and 
make manifest the counsels of the heart — in 
that day we shall discover that we owe a 
heavier debt of gratitude to the Lord for the 
trials we have endured than for the comforts 
we have enjoyed. For how many more are 
drawn to Him by sufferings than by consola- 
tions ! 



E magnif}'' the things around us, we ex- 



▼ V aggerate the importance of passing petty 
events and we are blind to the great everlasting 
truths, confronting us like the stars of Heaven 
in their imperishable spelndor. 



JUNE ITth 




96 



I 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 18th 

YOUR faith teaches you that you have an 
immortal soul. It therefore reminds you of 
your dignity and responsibility. Philosophers 
may cavil and dispute about the properties of 
the human soul, about its indivisibility and spir- 
ituality. But above all these metaphysical dis- 
putations rise in clear and unerring tones the 
words of Christ: '*I am the Resurrection and 
the Life. He that believeth in Me, although 
he be dead, shall live, and every one that liveth 
and believeth in Me, shall not die forever." 

JUNE 19th 

THOSE earthly things which we so eagerly 
crave, appear small and trivial when calmly 
weighed in the scales of the sanctuary, and the 
sufferings and trials we endure seem short and 
momentary when measured with the line of 
eternity. 



97 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 20th 

I HOLD that religion is the only solid basis 
of society. If the social edifice rests not on 
this eternal and immutable foundation it will 
soon crumble to pieces. * * * Every 
philosopher and statesman who has discussed 
the subject of human governments has acknowl- 
edged that there can be no stable society with- 
out justice, no justice without morality, no 
morality without religion, no religion without 
God. 



98 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUXE Slst 

THERE is little to be gained in quoting 
Scripture to men who imagine that many 
facts of Scripture are controverted by the de- 
ductions of science. In vain do we strive to 
persuade men to be solicitous about the salva- 
tion of their souls, so long as they are seduced 
into the belief that they have no soul or spir- 
itual being, and maintain that their mental con- 
ceptions are mere modifications of the brain. 

JUNE S3d 

A MIRACLE is an effect which trans- 
cends the power and order of all created 
nature. As God alone is the Author of na- 
ture's laws, He alone has power to suspend 
them. A mission, therefore, which is authenti- 
cated by miracles, is not only furnished with 
undoubted credentials, but is stamped with the 
royal seal of Divine approbation. 



99 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 23d 

RESOLVE to make every morning an obla- 
tion of your actions to God. This daily 
consecration will sanctify your life. It will give 
a certain holy impulse to all your work. Thus 
every act will be a prayer which will pierce the 
clouds. It will be a sacrifice most pleasing to 
the Lord. 

JUNE S4th 

OF all the encomiums bestowed upon John 
the Baptist by the Master, there is none so 
tender and endearing as the title of **The 
Friend of the Bridegroom.*' The nearer we 
approach in personal righteousness and devo- 
tion to John, the more we can share with him 
in this beautiful appellation. 



100 



MAXIM 8 OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JVKE 25th 

GOD is never imposed on by the din of 
popular praise. He estimates a man at his 
real worth. His verdict is the standard, the 
criterion of genuine excellence, and the patent 
of true nobility. He crowns merit only, and 
the dignity which springs from virtue. 

JUNE 26th 

WITH regard to the creation of the world 
and the origin of man, a few strokes of 
the sacred penman give us more information on 
this subject than can be evolved from the com- 
bined theories of ancient and modern geologists. 
The Mosaic narrative has never been sup- 
planted by any reasonable S3'^stem, nor even suc- 
cessfully assailed. 



101 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 27th 

YOU speak of your rights, your privileges, 
but you have not a word to say of your 
duties, your obligations. Ah, my brethren, if 
men and women had due consideration for 
their duties and responsibilities, their rights 
would take care of themselves. There can be 
no rights where there are no corresponding obli- 
gations. There are no rights against the law 
of God. 

JUNE 28th 

AS much as our spiritual substance excels the 
flesh that surrounds it, so much more did 
our Saviour value the resurrection of a soul 
from the grave of sin than the resurrection of 
the body from that of death. While the Gos- 
pel relates only three resurrections of the body, 
our Lord during His mortal life raised thou- 
sands of souls to the life of grace. 



102 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JUNE 29th 

AS the faithful Christian recognizes the pres- 
ence of the Blessed Sacrament in tlie taber- 
nacle by the lamp that is burning before the 
altar, so are we made aware of the presence of 
God in the temple of our souls by the light of 
conscience that shines within us. 

JUNE 30th 

THE Apostle of the Gentiles never wearies 
in giving thanks to God. In eleven of his 
fourteen epistles he pours forth his gratitude 
for the spiritual blessings vouchsafed to himself 
and his disciples. And in every instance these 
expressions of grateful acknowledgment are 
found in the opening chapter, as if to admonish 
us that all our prayers and good works should 
be inaugurated by acts of thanksgiving. 



103 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JULY 1st 




I HE righteous man when subjected 
to the privation of health, of 
friends and of temporal prosper- 
ity, or to the unmerited loss of his 



good name, sees the hand of God in the adver- 
sities that befall him, and bears them with com- 
posure and equanimity. 

JULY Sd 

IN invoking our Lady's patronage, we are 
actuated by a triple sense of the majesty of 
God, our own unworthiness, and of Mary's in- 
comparable influence with her Heavenly Father. 

JULY 3d 

AS the government stamp gives a value to a 
coin of the basest metal, so does an upright 
intention afSx the royal seal of Divine approba- 
tion on the smallest deliberate act. 



104: 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JULY 4th 



HAT is the chief cause of our unrest? 



V f Is it not an excessive anxiety about our 
temporal affairs? Now in prayer, God gives 
us grace not only to restrain our inordinate 
ambition, but even to curb and moderate our 
laudable desires. 



OUR Creator has an absolute sovereignty 
over the human family. God brought us 
into this world without our knowledge and 
volition. He desires that we should depart 
from it in the manner and time He has decreed. 
He demands our lifelong service. By self- 
immolation we defeat the ends of our Creator. 
We usurp His authority. We rebel against 




JULY 5th 



His will. 



105 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JXJIiY Gth 

SOCIETY is like the planetary system which 
is composed of greater and lesser bodies 
held together by reciprocal forces. 

JULY 7th 

NEVER do we find our blessed Redeemer 
exercising the rigors of His justice, but 
every day we behold Him doing works of 
clemency. 

JULY 8th 

WORSHIP the Lord with gladness of 
heart, for God loveth a cheerful giver. 
He wishes to be served not with the suUenness, 
gloom and reluctance of a slave or a hireling, 
but with the alacrity of a son. 



106 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JULY 9th 



OD grant that the day may be hastened 



VJ when ancient prejudices will disappear, 
when our separated brethren will hearken to 
the voice of the Good Shepherd, when they 
will be reunited in the faith of their fathers and 
will participate in the fulness of our Christian 
heritage, when ** there shall be one fold and 
one Shepherd." 




107 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JULY 10th 

THE only yoke the Church imposes is the 
yoke of Christ, whose yoke is sweet and 
whose burden is light. The Church grants you 
all the liberty that Christ has given — nothing 
more, nothing less. But liberty must have its 
bounds. Liberty without restraint is license. 
And it is only such as observe this legitimate 
restraint that enjoy true liberty, the liberty 
wherewith Christ has made us free — *'the glori- 
ous liberty of the children of God." 



JULY 11th 



THOUGH we are of ourselves of little 
value, God esteems us because we were 
bought with a great price — even with the pre- 
cious blood of His Son. 



108 



MAXIMS OF CARDIXAL GIBBONS 



JULY 12th 



OW jealous we should be in seeing that 



AAevery page in the Book of Life having ref- 
erence to us shall record some good deed on 
the last day. 



'HE frequent and pressing invitations of 



A our Lord are the strongest motives that can 
urge us to receive His body and blood. ^ ^ * 
I beseech you, dearly beloved, v/hen the Mas- 
ter of the house invites you, no matter how 
pressin.^ may be your occupations, or how se- 
ductive the attractions that restrain you, do not 
let these worldly aifairs so absorb your attention 
as to prevent you from attending the Divine 
banquet. 



JULY 13th 




109 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JULY 14th 

THE Word of God is an inexhaustible 
treasury of heavenly science. It is the only 
oracle that discloses to us the origin and sublime 
destiny of man, and the means of attaining it. 
It is the key that interprets his relations to his 
Creator. It is the foundation of our Christian 
faith and of our glorious heritage. Its moral 
code is the standard of our lives. 

JULY 15th 

PRAYER renders us co-operators with our 
Creator in the moral government of the 
world, since many of the events of life are 
shaped by our entreaties. The affairs of man- 
kind are decreed from all eternity, and the 
eternal decrees themselves are determined by 
prayers of His servants. * 'Prayer moves the 
hand that moves the universe.'* 



110 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JULY 16th 



JESUS never inculcates a moral duty that He 
does not practice in an eminent degree. He 
taught by example before He taught by pre- 



OTHING is more manifest in the Gospel 



•i ^ than the sympathy of Jesus for the poor. 
He wished to stamp with condemnation the 
spirit of the world, which estimates a man's 
dignity by his wealth, and his degradation by 
his poverty. 



cept. 



JULY 17th 




111 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JULY ISth 

THERE is an old Dutch proverb v/hich 
says that if we were all to bring our crosses 
to the market, so that he who bore the largest 
and heaviest cross would receive the prize, we 
would be so much ashamed of the littleness of 
our own that we v/ould hide it in our breast 
without exhibiting it. 

JULY 19th 

WE cannot fail to admire the wisdom of 
Jehovah, and his intimate knowledge of 
the human heart, in designating one particular 
day in the week when public homage should be 
paid to Him. For so engrossing are the cares 
and occupations of life, so absorbing are its 
pleasures, so gross and earthly the tendencies 
of the human heart, that it would be difficult, if 
not impossible, to direct its aspirations to higher 
and holier pursuits, unless a special time were 
set apart for exercises of piety. 



112 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



JULY SOth 



UNDER the most appropriate figure of a 
sheepfold, our Lord points out the essen- 
tial unity of faith that should bind together the 
members of His Church. 

JULY 21st 

ONE reason alone, apart from revelation, 
should convince us that God could not be 
the author of various conflicting systems of re- 
ligion. God is essentially one. He is truth 
itself. He is not the God of dissension, but of 
peace and order. 



fj ANY conspicuous heralds of the Gospel 



J-V-l- and exemplary Christians could trace 
their spiritual regeneration to the serious reflec- 
tions in which they were engaged during the 
solitary hours of a protracted illness. 



JULY 32d 




113 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



JULY S3d 



YEARN for that life where there is no 



\J old age, nor sickness, nor death, for the 
tree of life, says St. John, will preserve the citi- 
zens of that land in perpetual youth, freshness 
and vigor. Desire that country where no war 
nor dissension exists, for the Prince of Peace 
reigns there, and envy and ambition shall be 
forever excluded from that home. 

JULY 24th 

TT T E are told in the Gospel that while Jesus 



T V was praying in the Garden of Gethsem- 
ane, **there appeared to Him an angel strength- 
ening Him." What a striking symbol was this 
Heavenly Messenger to the Angel of Consola- 
tion whom the Lord sends to us in prayer to 
sweeten the bitter chalice which He puts to 
our lips. 





114 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JULY 25th 

ALAS! v/e walk the earth like thoughtless 
children who move through parental halls 
without recognizing the ancestral portraits look- 
ing down on them from the walls. 

JULY S6th 

WHEN you accept the Bible as the Word 
of God, you are obliged to receive it on 
the authority of the Catholic Church, who was 
the sole guardian of the Scriptures for fifteen 
hundred years. 

JULY 27th 

IN the history of human sorrow, no man ever 
yet endured so much anguish of mind as our 
Saviour Jesus Christ. We must bear in mind 
that the soul of Jesus was most sensitive to in- 
juries because of His luminous sense of justice 
and His intense hatred of wrong. 



115 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JULY 28th 

NOTHING is too good, nothing too beauti- 
tiful, nothing too precious for God. He 
gives us all we possess, and the least we can 
do in return is to ornament that spot which He 
has chosen for His abode on earth. 

JULY S9th 

ALMIGHTY God considered ceremonial 
so indispensable to interior worship, that we 
find Him in the Old Law prescribing in minute 
detail the various rites, ceremonies and ordi- 
nances to be observed by the Jewish priests and 
people in their public worship. 



116 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



JULY 30th 



ENUINE piety cannot long be concealed 



vJin the heart without manifesting itself by 
exterior practices of religion ; hence, though in- 
terior and exterior worship are distinct, they 
cannot be separated in the present life. 



OUR Christian faith gives superhuman 



strength and energy to your rvill ^ ^ ^ 
No rational man acts without a motive, and 
the higher and more urgent the motive, the 
more zeal and enthusiasm he brings to the 
execution of his moral obligations. The more 
precious the prize the more earnest is the ambi- 
tion to win it. 




JTTiY 31st 




117 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 

AUGUST 1st 

HERE are some who pretend, in 
spite of our Lord's declaration to 
the contrary, that loyalty to Peter 
is disloyalty to Christ, and that by 
acknowledging Peter as the rock on which 
the Church is built, we set our Saviour aside. 
* * * The true test of loyalty to Jesus is not 
only to worship Himself, but to venerate even 
the representatives He has chosen. 

AUGUST 2d 

YOUR first duty when you come to hear the 
Word of God, is to put yourself in touch 
with the speaker, to be in harmony and sym- 
pathy with him, and to regard him, as he reall> 
is — the minister of Christ and the dispenser of 
the mysteries of God. 




118 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST 3d 

CHARITY and Humility are the guardians 
of truth. They are the two angels that de- 
fend the temple of the soul against the approach 
of the demon of falsehood. 

AUGUST 4th 

LIFE would be precious in any shape or 
form. It would be an unmerited gift if we 
were made birds of the air, or beasts of the 
field, or fish of the sea, or creeping reptiles, for 
even the crawling reptile clings to life and in- 
stinctively shrinks from death. But how inex- 
pressibly greater is the boon God has conferred 
upon us in creating us human beings and the 
lords of His earthly domain ! He has made us 
in His own image and likeness. He has en- 
dowed us with a sublime intelligence, with a 
free will — with an immortal soul! 



119 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST 5th 

IS it not a blessing and a consolation that, 
amid the ever-changing views of men, amid 
the conflict of human opinion and the tumultu- 
ous waves of human passion, there is one 
voice heard above the din and uproar, crying 
in clear, unerring tones: **Thus saith the 
Lord?" 

AUGUST eth 

YOU that are young should be lightsome of 
heart, because your innocence renders you 
dearer to Gcd. You that are old should re- 
joice becaues you are nearer to the palm of 
victory. 



120 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST 7th 

TO ask the prayers of our brethren in Heaven 
is not only conformable to Holy Scripture, 
but is prompted by the instincts of our nature. 
* * ^ If my brother leaves me to cross the 
seas, I believe that he continues to pray for me. 
And when he crosses the narrow sea of death 
and lands on the shores of eternity why should 
he not pray for me still? What does Death 
destroy? The body. The soul still lives and 
moves and has its being. It thinks and wills 
and remembers and loves. 



121 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST 8th 
HAT prayer is more familiar to us than 



▼ ▼ that best and most comprehensive of all 
prayers, the **Our Father?" Like little children 
who run with confidence to their earthly parent, 
we can rush in spirit into the arms of our 
Father and say to Him: **Our Father, Who 
art in Heaven." 

AUGUST 9th 
A ND when He appears we shall be like 



•TxHim, for we **shall see Him as He is." 
We shall be like Him in justice and sanctity, 
like Him in immortality, like unto Him in 
eternal glory and felicity. Just as the atom 
sparkling in the sunbeam partakes of the splen- 
dor of the sun, so shall we, basking in the 
eternal sunshine of God's presence, participate 
in His glory everlasting. 





122 



MAZ/JfiSf OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST 10th 

TRULY has death been called a universal 
leveler. It spares neither age nor condi- 
tion of life. The most disastrous war will leave 
behind it some survivors. The most terrible 
plague will not carry away all its victims. The 
scythe of the mower will leave some blades of 
grass standing in the meadow. But the sword 
of death will not spare a single human being. 

AUGUST 11th 

REVIEW your past life. Examine the 
chain of its incidents in the light of faith, 
and are you not forced to admit that those 
vicissitudes of health and sickness, those alterna- 
tions of joy and sorrow, of prosperity and ad- 
versity , v/ere but the handmaids of Providence, 
the frowns and caresses of a loving Father lead- 
ing you on to your destination? 



123 



MAX Ills OF CAEDIXAL CrlBBOyS 



AUGUST 12th 

I CANNOT conceive any thought better 
calculated to ease the yoke and lighten the 
burden of the Christian toiler than the reflec- 
tion that the highest type of manhood had vol- 
untarily devoted Himself to manual labor. 

AUGUST 13 th 

THE Sacred Scripture is an historical monu- 
ment that has remained impregnable for 
thousands of years, and has successfully with- 
stood the violent shocks of the most formidable 
assailants. There is not a single arch or column 
or keystone in the sacred edifice that does not 
show some m.arks of a foreign or domestic as- 
sault. But there it stands as firm as the 
Pyramids, unshaken and unriven by the up- 
heaval and revolutions of centuries. 



124 



MAXniS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST 14th 

JUST as our sense of hearing is rendered more 
acute by attention and exercise, so do we 
catch the faintest whisperings of God's voice in 
our soul by habitual communion with Him. 

AUGUST 15 th 

IN Mary we find force of will without pride 
or imperiousness. We find in her moral 
strength and heroism without the sacrifice of 
female grace and honor — a heroism of silent 
suffering rather than of noisy action. What 
spartan mother ever displayed so much forti- 
tude as Mary exhibited at the foot of the cross? 



125 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST 16th 

THERE is no phase of human misery and 
affliction for which the Catholic religion 
does not provide some antidote, some allevia- 
tion. ^ ^ From the cradle to the grave 
she is a nursing mother. She rocks her children 
in the cradle of infancy, and she soothes them 
to rest on the couch of death. 

AUGUST 17th 

REMEMBER that in taking revenge for an 
injury you gratify a passion common to you 
with the brute creation. In forgiving an enemy 
you manifest the attribute of a God. 

AUGUST 18th 

THE Holy Ghost exhorts us not only to 
pardon the offender, but to forget, as far 
as possible, the injury done to us. 



120 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST 19th 

THERE is a special grace attached to the 
reading of the Inspired Volume. It will 
impart to your soul a solid, sturdy and healthy 
piety. It is the inexhaustible fountain from 
which the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, 
Christian orators and poets have drawn their 
inspiration. 

AUGUST SOth 




^HE Word of God is the most fearless 
Preacher you can listen to. 



AUGUST 21st 

THE love of Christ is extended to all man- 
kind without distinction of race, color or 
condition of life. His arms are wide-stretched 
on the cross, to indicate that His love is world- 
wide, universal, all-embracing. 



MAXniS OF CARDISAL GIBBOXS 



AUGrST 22d 

LOVE is the shortest, safest and surest road 
to righteousRess here, and to salvation here- 
after. 

AUGUST 23d 

ORDER is Heaven's first law. It is the 
economic distributer of time, the guardian 
of peace and tranquillity. A fixed hour should 
be set apart, as far as possible, for the custo- 
mary duties of each day. It is not ^s'ise to 
burden or bewilder yourself with too many 
religious exercises, but you should endeavor to 
perform well those that a judicious director and 
your own conscience m.ay prescribe. 



MAXIM8 OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST 24th 

IT is in accordance with the economy of Di- 
vine Providence that, whenever God designs 
any person for some important work. He be- 
stows on that person the graces and disposi- 
tions necessary for faithfully discharging it. 

AUGUST 35th 

JESUS CHRIST, our Lawgiver, is the only 
founder of religion who had the courage to 
make the whole world the theatre of his Gospel 
message. 

AUGUST 36th 

WHILE holding up to us lofty ideals of 
moral conduct, our Lord gives comfort to 
the human heart. He brings us that consola- 
tion which springs from the conscious posses- 
sion of the truth. 



129 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST 27th 

LET faith, then, in Christ have dominion 
over your soul. Exercise a triple faith — 
faith in your hearts by believing in the truths 
He hath revealed to us — faith on your lips by 
being ever ready, when the occasion demands, 
to give an account of the hope that is in you; 
faith in your actions by always making the 
Gospel the rule and standard of your life. 

AUGUST 2Sth 

THE Empire of Christ over the soul is not 
only boundless in extent, but eternal in 
duration. 

AUGUST 29th 

WHEN we behold the religion of Christ 
established by the weapons of weakness, 
humility and poverty, we are forced to exclaim: 
**The finger of God is here!" 

130 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



AUGUST SOth 

BE not cast down, but rather rejoice, if 
sometimes you are assailed like your Divine 
Master by the tongue of calumny. **B!essed 
are they who suffer persecution for justice' sake, 
for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." 

AUGUST 31st 

I HEARTILY pray that religious intolerance 
may never take root in our favored land. 
May the only king to force our conscience be 
the King of Kings ; may the only prison erected 
among us for the sin of unbelief or misbelief be 
the prison of a troubled conscience, and may 
our only motive for embracing truth be not the 
fear of man, but the love of truth and of God. 



131 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



SEPTEMBER 1st 




HE life of a missionary priest is 
never written, nor can it be. He 
has no Boswell. His biographer 
I may record his public and official 



acts; he may recount the churches he erected, 
the schools he founded, the works of religion 
and charity he inaugurated and fostered, the 
sermons he preached, the children he cate- 
chised, the converts he received into the fold — 
and this is a great deal. But it only touches 
on the surface of that devoted life. There is 
no memoir of his private daily life of usefulness 
and of his sacred relations with his flock. All 
this is hidden with Christ in God, and is regis- 
tered only by His recording angel. 



132 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



SEPTEMBER 2d 

THE knowledge of the spiritual world 
which Jesus Christ has imparted to man- 
kind exceeds that of Moses as much as the 
light of the noonday sun exceeds that of the 
early dawn. 

SEPTEMBER 3d 

THE home of affliction and mourning is the 
best school for the apostolic man. Every 
penitent is an object-lesson, silently portraying 
some particular truth. In one the priest beholds 
the awful penalty of sin; in another he views 
the sublime example of Christian patience 
worthy of the Patriarch Job; in all he sees 
mirrored before him the vanity and brevity of 
human life. 



138 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 

SEPTEMBSK 4th 
row strange that mankind should have a 



X J- superstitious dread of death, since it is as 
natural to die as to be born ! It is a sad reflec- 
tion that even pious Christians shrink from the 
contem.plation of **shuffling off this mortal coil," 
though they know they must be disrobed of 
their perishable covering before they can be 
clothed with immortality. 

SEPTEMBER 5th 
O^HOUGH no one can have an absolute 



i certainty as to his eternal destiny, neverthe- 
less as a man lives so he usually dies ; if we are 
now happily in the friendship of God, and 
earnestly strive for salvation, this pious temper 
of mind and heart should inspire us with the 
blessed assurance that we shall be faithful unto 
the end 





184 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 

SEPTEMBER 6th 
^HE remembrance of some phrase spoken 



JL by our Saviour is a powerful antidote 
against temptation. It is a spiritual bouquet, 
diffusing around us a healthful and delicious 
odor; it is a moral disinfectant in an atmos- 
phere of vice; it is a ready weapon against a 
sudden attack. 

SEPTEMBER 7th 

REST assured that while the wild theories 
periodically advanced against Christianity 
may float for awhile on the surface of the hu- 
man mind, like icebergs on the ocean, in the 
end they are sure to melt av/ay before the efful- 
gent rays of reason and revelation. 




135 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL OIBB0N8 



SEPTEMBER 8th 
HE model held up to woman from the 



Jl very dawn of Christianity is the peerless 
Mother of our Blessed Redeemer. She is the 
pattern of virtue alike to maiden, wife and 
mother. 

SEPTEMBER 9th 
A LAW requires a lawgiver. Without a 



•L* lawgiver it cannot be conceived. A law 
constantly acting, universally asserted, inwardly 
enforced, supposes a living, omnipotent, omni- 
present lawgiver. 





136 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



SEPTEMBER 10th 

TODAY the old conflict between the 
Church and despotic governments is raging 
fiercely throughout Europe. The scene enacted 
by John and Herod is today reproduced in al- 
most every kingdom of the old world. It is the 
old fight between brute force and the God- 
given rights of conscience. 

SEPTEMBER 11th 

MODERN science claims to deal with con- 
crete facts rather than with abstract ideas. 
We have here a concrete fact, known experi- 
mentally by every one, pervading human na- 
ture and everywhere asserting its influence. 
Within us a mysterious power compares our 
acts with a law superior to our will, and con- 
demns them when they are not in accordance 
with that supreme rule of conduct. 



187 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



SEPTEMBER 13th 

HOW sublime is the faculty of free will! 
It is a gift which distinguishes you from 
the brute creation ; for man is the only creature 
on earth that enjoys moral freedom, 

SEPTEMBER 13th 

IT has long been a mooted question whether 
men are more indebted to genius or to labori- 
ous industry for their intellectual achievements. 
Genius has been w^ell defined **an infinite ca- 
pacity for taking pains." Every man who has 
left the imprint of his genius on literature, 
philosophy and art has been an indefatigable 
worker. 

SEPTEMBER 14th 

I HAVE not less faith in the man who is 
guided by his heart than in the man who 
is controlled by his head. 



12$ 



MAXIMi^ OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



SEPTEiVIBER 15th 

IN the life of many cf us there is some clearly 
defined incident that marks a turning point in 
our spiritual career — an occasion that gave us 
an impetus in the right direction. It was, per- 
haps, a trifling circumstance — a seed silently 
cast into your heart, where it slowly germi- 
nated — it was a mission, a casual sermon, or 
the perusal of some striking passage of the 
Scripture that had a direct application to us, 
or it was a deep-rooted sorrow, or an unwonted 
illumination of the soul. But it formed a first 
link in the chain of subsequent events, and 
when v/e look back we inwardly exclaim, with 
a sense of awe and gratitude. What a blessed 
influence that occurrence exerted on my after 
years I 



180 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



SEPTEMBER 16th 

THE temple of Nature itself is as inferior 
in grandeur to the temple of the Soul, as 
matter is inferior to spirit and as time is to 
eternity. For when the great vault of Nature 
shall be demolished, when the stars shall fade 
away and the sun grow dim with years, even 
then the temple of the Soul shall live and move 
and have its being. 

SEPTEMBER 17th 

THERE is this essential difference between 
Jesus Christ and the other founders of re- 
ligions, that they lived and died and passed 
away, while Christ abides forever among us. 
He alone has said: **Behold I am with you all 
days even to the consummation of the world." 



140 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



SEPTEMBER 18th 

EXTERIOR rites and ceremonies are the 
handmaids of interior worship; they serve 
to foster devotion just as food nourishes animal 
life. 

SEPTEiVIBER 19th 

A GOOD spiritual book, especially) the 
Holy Scripture, is your most powerful 
armor in time of war — that is, in moments of 
temptation. 

SEPTEMBER 20th 

WHAT a manual on military tactics is to 
the soldier, a religious book is to the sol- 
dier of Christ. The sacred volume will instruct 
you by v/ord and example when you are to 
fight, and when you are prudently to decline 
battle by avoiding the occasions of sin. 



141 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



SEPTEMBER Slst 

LET us remember there can be little or no 
charity without some self-sacrifice. Self- 
love is the enemy of benevolence. 

SEPTEMBER 22d 

THE essence of Christianity consists in a 
spirit of self-sacrifice. As we are not 
called on like the Apostles and our forefathers 
in the faith, to surrender our life, we should be 
willing to make at least some renunciation of 
our goods for conscience' sake. The more 
generous we are in the cause of evangelical 
truth, the more we will appreciate and love it; 
while we ordinarily set small value on what 
costs us little or nothing. 

SEPTEMBER 23d 

THERE was never a martyr or hero that 
was not a man of strong faith and earnest 
convictions. 

142 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 
SEPTEMBEK 24th 

THE superstructure of moral integrity must 
rest on the solid basis of dogmatic truth 
and intellectual conviction. How can I love 
God, unless I believe in Him as the Author 
of my being and the Source of every blessing 
that I receive? 

SEPTEMBER 25th 

AFTER our Lord Jesus Christ no one has 
ever exercised so salutary and so dominant 
an influence as the Blessed Virgin on society, 
on the family, and on the individual. 

SEPTEMBER 2eth 

IT is delightful and honorable to suffer in the 
company of Christ. A burden which other- 
wise would be difficult and intolerable to bear 
becomes light and easy with His example be- 
fore us. 



143 



MAX HIS OF CARDINAL GIB BON 8 



SSPTEIVfBER S7th 

IF you disclose to me your character, I will 
reveal to you your destiny. If your character 
is above reproach, you will win in the battle 
of life. You may not attain distinction in the 
civil or political, the military or ecclesiastical 
walks of life. But the acquisition of these 
honors is not a criterion of genuine success. 
The true test of ultimate triumph lies in the 
fulfilment of duty. If you are faithful at the 
post to which Providence will assign you, no 
matter what that post may be, you will be suc- 
cessful in life. 

SEPTEMBER 28th 
TVTO truth is profane to the Christian. All 



-L 1 truth is appropriated and sanctified by re- 
ligion, for its Author is the Source of truth. 




144 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



SEPTEMBER S9th 

WHY should we not sanctify the souls of 
our children by means of pious emblems ? 
Why should we not make the eye the instru 
ment of edification, as the enemy makes it the 
organ of destruction? The arts were intended 
to be the handmaids of religion. 

SEPTEMBER 30th 

CHRISTIANS, look on the bright side in- 
stead of the dark side of life. God sends you 
ninety-nine blessings with one affliction. You 
close your eyes to the ninety and nine blessings, 
and you stare at the one affliction until your 
imagination and impatience distort and mag- 
nify it beyond all due proportions. 



145 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 1st 

ET religion be the Queen of your 
household. It will be a sacred 
bond uniting all the members in 
the ties of domestic love. It 
Will be the guardian of peace and contentment. 

OCTOBEK 2d 

THE emblems and rites that the Church 
employs in her public liturgy may be called 
the book of the unlearned. . They serve to con- 
centrate the faculties and to rivet the attention ; 
they pour into the soul a flood of religious 
knowledge more copiously and more speedily 
than oral teaching could impart. They stamp 
on the soul an impression more vivid and lasting 
than the most eloquent discourse. 




14G 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 3d 

THE most rational and enduring satisfaction 
a man can experience is found in bringing 
happiness to others. By your benefactions to 
a struggling brother or sister you confer a triple 
joy. You give joy to the recipient of your gift, 
you give joy to the heart of God, and you 
bring joy to yourself. 

OCTOBER 4th 

WHILE woman is not tempered like man 
to encounter the rough conflicts of life, 
she usually displays a self-sacrifice, a spirit of 
fortitude and sublime heroism in stemming the 
tide of adversity that often puts to shame the 
cold calculation and cautious cowardice of the 
sterner sex. 



14T 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 5th 

REST assured that Christian faith will never 
stunt your intellect, or warp your judgment, 
or check your progress in the investigation of 
natural truths. On the contrary, faith will be 
as the sun illuminating your path. It will be a 
beacon light cautioning you to shun the shoals 
and quicksands on which false science has often 
been wrecked. 



OCTOBER 6th 

WE are anxious to receive the reward of 
faith, but the sacrifices and humiliations 
that our faith exacts we shrink from under- 
going. 

OCTOBER 7th 

THE road of suffering is the path which 
leads to glory. 



148 



MAXIMS OF CARDI^'AL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 8th 

AS in every human breast there are two 
movements — the one that inhales the air, 
the other that exhales it after it has enriched the 
blood — so should there be in every soul two 
movements — the one receiving gifts from the 
Holy Spirit, which invigorate our inner life, 
the other pouring forth these gifts in the form 
of thanksgiving. 

OCTOBER 9tli 

THE Spirit of God is a spirit of Prayer. 
If you have the Holy Spirit within you, 
you will relish prayer, you will instinctively turn 
to God when assailed by any temptation, or op- 
pressed by any affliction, and you will be dili- 
gent in the exercise of your morning and even- 
ing devotions. 



149 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 10th 

AS reasonable beings and as Christians, we 
should execute our daily duties with close 
attention of mind and an upright intention of 
heart. We should observe the wise maxim of 
the Ancients: **Age quod agis." Do well 
what you do. We should perform each act as 
if it were the only one assigned to us, or as if 
it were the last act of our lives. 

OCTOBER 11th 

THE friendship of Jesus ennobles and sanc- 
tifies human friendship. It elevates it to a 
higher plane. It is the bond which strengthens 
it and makes it lasting. 

OCTOBER 12th 

YOU will never be disloyal to a friend as 
long as you are loyal to Christ. 

150 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 13th 

( 

WHAT a tremendous responsibility is at- 
tached to the perilous gift of free will! 
If righteously employed it becomes an instru- 
ment of unending bliss. If abused, it becomes 
an engine of endless destruction. * * * 
It is the exercise of the will that distinguishes 
the saint from the sinner, the martyr from the 
apostate, the hero from the coward, the benevo- 
lent ruler from the capricious tyrant. 



OCTOBER 14th 

VOCATION to the Priesthood is a Provi- 
dential act, by which God selects some per- 
sons in preference to others for the work of the 
ministry, and confers on them particular graces 
for its faithful execution. 



151 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 15 th 

WE of the priesthood may occasionally 
pluck the fruits of honor along the road- 
side if they hang in our way, but we are not 
to cross the fence to reach them, still less are 
they to be our sustaining food. 

OCTOBER 16th 

GOD has given us a heart to be formed 
to virtue, as well as a head to be enlight- 
ened. By secular education we improve the 
mind ; by religious training we direct the heart. 

OCTOBER 17th 

SILENCE, solitude and study are the three 
great prerequisites for knowledge. Silence 
and solitude are the handmaids of study. With- 
out interior recollection and intense thought, no 
great work was ever achieved. 



152 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER ISth 

MY experience is that the confessional is 
the most powerful lever ever erected by 
a merciful God for raising men from the mire 
of sin. 

OCTOBER 19th 

THE Priest, like Moses, stands before God 
to intercede for his people, and before the 
people to advocate the cause of God. 

OCTOBER 20th 

IN being worthy Christians, you become chil- 
dren of God, brothers of Christ, temples of 
the Holy Ghost. Our Lord is your advocate 
in Heaven. He is the Herald that will usher 
you into His Kingdom, and you claim as your 
spiritual kindred those illustrious men and 
women who have reflected honor on our com- 
mon humanity. 



153 



MAXIMl^ OF CARDn^AL GIBBONS 
OCTOBER 21st 

PIETY is not to be put on like a holiday 
dress, to be worn on state occasions, but it 
is to be exhibited in our conduct at all times. 



IF God were the offspring of man's perturbed 
imagination, then the human race, with the 
exception of a handful of atheists, would be all 
cowards. But we know that millions exist 
in every age who, believing in God, are actu- 
ated towards Him more by sentiments of love 
than of fear. 

OCTOBER 23d 
OD has endowed each of us with the gift 



VJof free will. Man may assail and destroy 
the temple of the body, but your free will, en- 
shrined in the sanctuary of the soul, is beyond 
his reach, unless you voluntarily surrender it. 



OCTOBER 22d 




154 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 24th 

THE teaching of Christian philosophy with 
regard to the uses of adversity may be sum- 
med up in one short sentence — that they are to 
be borne with patience and even with joy. 

OCTOBER 25th 

BY prayer we ascend, like Moses, to the 
holy mountain. There God removes the 
scales from our eyes. He dispels the clouds of 
passion, of prejudice or of ignorance that en- 
velop us. He enlarges our mental vision. He 
sheds a flood of light upon us that enables us 
to see the hidden things of God. 

OCTOBER 26th 

THE Holy Ghost is, above all, a Spirit of 
Love. Ask Him to bum and consume 
in your hearts the dross of sin, so that you may 
love God above all things, and your neighbor 
as yourselves. 

155 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 27th 

THE religion of Christ, which was estab- 
lished to prepare us for the future bliss in 
the world to come, contributes at the same time 
to our happiness in this life, as far as it can 
be attained in our present condition. And as 
cares and solicitudes are a bar to peace and 
tranquillity, our Lord suggests to us by His 
inspired writers, and by His own voice, the 
motives and means of banishing those cares, or 
of lessening their hurtful influence and of light- 
ening their burden. 

OCTOBER S8th 

IT has been observed that confirmed invalids 
who bear their infirmities with Christian pa- 
tience are a blessing to the home in which they 
dwell. Their sufferings are accepted as a 
vicarious penance and an atonement for the 
shortcomings of the other members of the house- 
hold, **by presenting their bodies a living sacri- 
fice, holy, pleasing unto God." 

156 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 29th 

HOW unspeakably transcendent is your dig- 
nity vv^hen you are in a state of righteous- 
ness ! You possess not only the grace of God, 
but the God of all grace. You receive not 
only the gift of the Giver, but the Giver of 
every perfect gift. You are honored by the 
true, real and substantial presence of the Holy 
Ghost. 

OCTOBER 30th 

OMY brethren, write not your good deeds 
on the sands of time, but inscribe them in 
the imperishable Book of Life. Commit them 
not to the treacherous memory of man, but con- 
fide them to the remembrance of God, by w^hom 
no good work of yours will ever be forgotten. 



157 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



OCTOBER 31st 
"0 one appreciates more than I do the 



JL^ blessings of religious liberty that we pos- 
sess in this country. No one would regret 
more than myself the loss of the religious tol- 
eration that here obtains. I am, however, 
persuaded that religious toleration involves some 
sacrifices. 

An age of religious liberty is not one most 
fruitful in sturdy heroes of faith. It is not an 
age most favorable to the growth of a Judas 
Machabeus, a Cyprian, a Thomas of Canter- 
bury, or a Sir Thomas More. In times of 
religious persecution, the will is on the alert to 
resist attacks. In times of religious freedom, 
the will is off its guard and is easily assailed. 

Far better is it to endure the sword of open 
persecution than to drink the subtle and intoxi- 
cating poison of religious indifference, which 
paralyzes the energies of the will. 




158 



MAXIMS OF CARDn^AL GIBBONS 



NOVEMBER 1st 




HE Catholic doctrine of the Com- 
munion of Saints robs death of its 
terrors ; while the Reformers of 
J the sixteenth century, in denying 
the Communion of Saints, not only inflicted a 
deadly wound on the Creed, but also severed 
the tenderest chords of the human heart. O, 
far be from us the dreary thought that death 
cuts off our friends entirely from us. Far be 
from us the heartless creed which declares a 
perpetual divorce between us and the just in 
Heaven. 



NOVEMBER 2d 

JESUS CHRIST is the only vital and endur- 
ing name in history. He exerts today a para- 
mount influence on the political and social, as 
well as on the moral and religious world, such 
as was never wielded by any earthly ruler. 



159 



MAXIMA OF CARDINAL GIBB0}^8 



NOI^EIVIBEK 3d 

HOW cheering the reflection that the golden 
link of prayer unites you still to those who 
**fe!I asleep in the Lord/' that you can still 
speak to them and pray for them! Oh, it is 
this thought that robs death of its sting and 
makes the separation of friends endurable. If 
your departed friend needs not your prayers, 
they are not lost, but, like the rain absorbed 
by the sun and descending again in fruitful 
showers on our fields, they will be gathered by 
the Sun of Justice and v/ill fall in refreshing 
showers of grace upon your head. 

NOVEMBER 4th 

AS the world has never yet beheld, and never 
will behold, a nation of atheists, so will the 
SMn never shine on a nation that does not wor- 
ship God. The forms, indeed, of worship and 
of supplication have differed widely among 
men, but the language of the heart has always 
been the same. 

160 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIB BON 8 



NOl^MBEB 5th 

'HAT the practice of praying for the dead 



A has descended from Apostolic times, is evi- 
dent from the Liturgies of the Church and the 
unanimous voice of the Doctors and Fathers, 
who are the recognized expounders of the Chris- 
tian religion. ^ ^ ^ You see them incul- 
cating this doctrine, not as a cold and abstract 
principle, but as an imperative act of daily 
piety, embodying it in their ordinary exercises 
of devotion. 

KOl^EMBEK 6th 

OUR will is so weak and vacillating, we are 
so prompt and generous in forming good 
resolutions and so remiss in keeping them; so 
courageous when no enemy is at hand, so cow- 
ardly when the tempter confronts us. What is 
the history of each day, but a record of pledges 
broken, of vows to God unredeemed, and of 
humiliating defeats on the battlefield of this 
world ! 




161 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



XOVEIVIBBR 7th 

TO judge adequately of God's providence 
towards us, we must not restrict ourselves 
to a partial or one-sided view of man's destiny, 
but we must contemplate him in the whole 
cycle of his existence. We cannot judge of 
the success of a race until the contestants reach 
the goal. 

We must remember that man's soul is im- 
mortal, that his duration will be eternal, and 
that the day of final reckoning will come only 
at the term of the present life. Why, then, im- 
peach the justice of our Creator if He permits 
the impious to prosper for a time, and defers 
rewarding His servants until the close of their 
earthly pilgrimage ? 

**One day with the Lord is as a thousand 
years, and a thousand years as one day." And 
what are even a thousand years in comparison 
with eternity? 



162 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



NOVE3IBER Sth 
E must all die, but our death shall occur 



▼ y only once. You have but one race to 
run, one battle to fight, one victory to gain or 
lose. If God had given us two successive lives, 
then, indeed, death might be relieved of its 
horrors and fatal consequences; for we might 
repair in the second life the evil we had done 
in the first, and we might win in the second 
campaign the battle we had lost in the former 
one. But **it is appointed to men once to 



NOVEMBEH 9th 
HE Bible is the only book that our Saviour 



A is known ever to have read or quoted in the 
whole course of His sacred ministry. 




die. 




163 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



NOVEMBER 10th 
F al! the sacred writers, there is none that 



reposes greater confidence in the prayers of 
his brethren than Saint Paul, although no one 
had a better knowledge than he of the infinite 
merits of our Saviour's passion, and no one 
could have more endeared himself to God by 
personal labors. In his Epistles, St. Paul re- 
peatedly asks for himself the prayers of his dis- 
ciples. Now, if our friends, though sinners, 
can aid us by their prayers, why cannot our 
friends, the Saints of God, be able to assist us 
also? 



THE Sacred Text is so interwoven with 
every fibre of the discourses and writings of 
the Fathers, that if the Bible were lost, it would 
be almost fully recovered in their works. 




NOVEMBER 11th 




164 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



NOVEMBEK 12 th 

THERE is no royal highway to the moun- 
tain of knowledge. The only way is the 
ragged road of labor. Learning comes not to 
any one by heredity or descent. The father 
may bequeath to the son the temporal posses- 
sions he has accumulated, but he cannot trans- 
mit to him his acquired wealth of lore. 

NOVE^IBEK 13th 

WITH what awe and grateful love should 
we assist at the sacrifice of the Mass! 
The Angels were present at Calvary. Angels 
are present also at the Mass. If we cannot as- 
sist with the seraphic love and rapt attention of 
the angelic spirits, let us worship, at least, 
with the simple devotion of the Shepherds at 
Bethlehem and the unswerving faith of the 
Magi. 



165 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



NOVEMBER 14th 

LOOK upon each day as your last and each 
action as the final work of your life, for a 
day will surely come which will not be suc- 
ceeded by another, and you shall perform one 
act that will close the drama of life, 

NOVEMSEK 15th 

IN a warfare in which everything is at stake — 
your fortune, your happiness and your eter- 
nal destiny, a warfare which is to result in a 
decisive victory or an irreparable defeat — 
ought you not to put forth all your strength ? 
If the armies contending in the field were con- 
vinced that one battle would decide the whole 
campaign, how strenuously would they fight! 
So should you in this life, which is a warfare, 
exert all the powers of your soul. You should 
be terribly in earnest, so that when Death comes 
the victory may be yours. 



166 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBB0N8 



NOVEMBER 16th 

NO man can contend by proxy in the arena 
of intellectual strife. He cannot win 
gloiy by purchasing a substitute. He must 
fight his own battles. Every toiler in the field 
of letters must plough his own field and plant 
his own seed, if he hopes to reap the harvest of 
learning, 

NOVEMBER 17th 

ONE of the paramount duties of a priest is 
habitual kindness and patience toward every 
child of sin, sorrow and suffering with whom he 
may be thrown. ^ * * A severe rebuke, 
spoken perhaps inadvertently and without mal- 
ice, has driven many a sensitive man from the 
sacraments, and even from the church for 
years, aye, for a lifetime. 



167 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



NOVEMBER 18th 
HERE shall you die, when shall you die, 



f f how shall you die ? Shall your death 
occur in the city or the country, on sea or on 
land, at home or abroad? Shall your death 
occur in the springtime or in the summer, or 
will your grave be covered with autumnal 
leaves, or with the snow and frosts of winter? 
Will it be in thirty years hence, or ten, or one 
year, or in a month, or a week, or a day, nay 
in this very hour? You do not know. But 
of this you are assured — that many a young 
and vigorous frame which has now as fair a 
prospect of life as you have, before the clock 
strikes the midnight hour will be as cold in 
death as the grave which is to receive it. 




1G8 



MAXIMS OF CARDiyAL GIB BOSS 



XO\^MBEK 19th 

JESUS CHRIST exacts an absolute obedi- 
ence such as only a God can claim. Fie re- 
quires the submission of our intellect to the 
teachings of faith; the submission of our will 
by an interior attachment to His law, as well 
as an external compliance v/ith it. He must be 
undisputed master of the kingdom of our heart. 

XO\T33IBEK 20th 

DEATH is the best of counsellors. It tem- 
pers the ardor of our feverish aspirations, 
reconciles us to defeats and disappointnicnts, 
moderates the exuberance of cur complacency 
in success, and teaches us to view with com- 
posure the lights and shadows of the earthly 
scenes through which we are rushing tcv/ards 
the shores of eternity. 



169 



MAXIMS OF CARDIXAL GIBBONS 



XOVEiVIBER 21st 

THERE is an inseparable connection be- 
tween God's foreknowledge and His provi- 
dence; the one is the complement and fulfil- 
ment of the other. Predestination is the end 
decreed by the Almighty; Providence is the 
means of attaining it. 

NOVEMBER 22d 

WITH what delight does the prisoner hear 
the huge bolts of his dungeon door drawn 
aside, and listen to the messenger of the law 
ending the sentence of his deliverance! With 
what joy he bounds into the light of day and 
breathes the air of freedom and hastens to his 
father's home ! And should you not rejoice in 
the day which will release you from the prison 
of the body, reveal to you the light of Heaven, 
and restore you to the glorious liberty of the 
children of God, and enable you to enter the 
home of your Eternal Father ? 



170 



MAXIMA OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



NOVEIMBER 23d 

IT is true, indeed » that the Catholic Church 
spares no pains and stops at no sacrifices in 
order to induce mankind to embrace her faith. 
Otherwise she would be recreant to her sacred 
mission. But she scorns to exercise any undue 
influence in her efforts to convert souls. 

NO\^>IBER 24th 

AMID ail their wanderings and vicissitudes 
of life the children of Israel, though dis- 
membered and dispersed, like sheep without a 
shepherd, over the surface of the globe, have 
never forgotten or neglected the sacred duty of 
praying for their deceased brethren. They re- 
tain to this day, in their liturgy, the pious prac- 
tice of praying for the dead. 



171 



MAXIMS OF CARD IX AL GIBBONS 



NO^^MBER 25th 

WHY should you have a morbid dread of 
death, Soldiers of the Cross? Let the 
infidel fear death, who hopes in his heart that 
there is no God. Let the obdurate sinner fear 
death, who offends the Majesty of Heaven by 
his sins. But why should you dread death? 
Has not your Master conquered die king of 
terrors by His own death and resurrection? 
Has He not lifted up the veil and given you an 
insight into that bright and boundless realm be- 
yond the grave ? Why should you fear to pass 
through the gate which leads to the ragions of 
bliss eternal ? 

NOirEMBER 26th 

UNEQUAL distribution of goods is the law 
of Divine economy — decreed by a wise 
dispensation of Providence for the exercise of 
social virtues, that the strong may aid the weak, 
the learned instruct the ignorant, the rich help 
the poor. 

172 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



NOVEMBER 27th 



IT cannot be denied that great abuses often 
arise from indiscriminate mendicancy, and 
that it should be kept within certain bounds. 
Promiscuous almsgiving is not always charity. 
Instead of supplying a real want, it often min- 
isters to the passions of an unworthy applicant. 



v/ missariat never fails. Thou makest ample 
provision for all. "Thou openest Thy hand 
and fillest with blessing every living creature.*' 



NOA^MBER 2Sth 




FATHER, Thy com- 



173 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



NOVEMBEB 29th 

I DO not know of any truth of revelation 
more tranquillizing and consoling to the 
human heart than the doctrine of God's special 
Providence over us. If I may disclose my own 
inward thought, I will aver that it has ever been 
to me the most reassuring of all Christian teach- 
ings, and one that has been a sustaining force 
to me amid the vicissitudes of a long life. 

NOl^MBEB SOth 

AS sure as tomorrow's sun will rise, so sure 
shall you and I rise one day from our graves 
to be gathered together at the dread tribunal of 
God, to receive from our common Judge a last 
sentence of eternal death or everlasting life. 



174 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECE3IBEII 1st 

IN that day there shall be no dis- 
tinction of rank, there shall be no 
I reserved seats at this great theatre 
where the human family shall 
meet for the last time. 

Then no title shall Ke recognized save the 
title of a well-spent life. There no kingly hon- 
ors shall be of avail except the royalty of virtue.. 
No wealth shall be esteemed except the riches 
of good works. 

DECEMBER Sd 

HOW can we doubt God's special Provi- 
dence when we reflect that our Creator has 
made us in His Own image and likeness, that 
He has endowed us with an immortal soul, that 
He has bestowed on us the God-like faculties 
of intelligence and free-will; that He has ap- 
pointed us the lords of His earthly domain, and 
that man is the only earthly being who is made 
partaker of these Divine gifts, nay more. He 
has created us for a definite purpose and end. 




175 



MAXnJS OF GARDU^AL GIBBONS 



DECEMBEK 3d 

LET us not grow weary of the salutary re- 
straints of Christian life. Let us not cast 
wistful glances towards Egypt from whose 
bonds we have been rescued, nor long for its 
flesh-pots. Let us glory in our Christian her- 
itage ; and, above all, let us not be guilty of the 
mockery of leading Pagan lives while making 
profession of Christianity. 

DECE3IBER 4th 

I SEE perfect harmony in the laws which gov- 
ern the physical world we inhabit. I see a 
marvelous unity in our planetary system. Each 
planet moves in its own sphere, and all are 
controlled by the central sun. 

Why should there not be also harmony and 
concord in that spiritual world, the Church of 
God, the grandest conception of His omnipo- 
tence, and the most bounteous m.anifestation of 
His goodness and love for mankind. 



176 



MAXIMS OF CARDiyAL GIBB0278 



DECE3IBEH 5th 

A CHRISTIAN child, with a knowledge 
of his catechism, knows more about the 
great truths affecting his eternal interests than 
the most profound philosopher who discards 
revelation. 

DECEMBER Gth 

IN order to be assured of God's providential 
protection, the only condition required is that 
j^ou rebel not against His holy v/ill, but heartily 
abandon yourself to His good pleasure and 
faithfully observe His law. 

DECEMBER 7th 

WHEN the Church issues a new dogma of 
faith, that decree is nothing more than a 
new form of expressing an old doctrine, be- 
cause the decision m.ust be drawn from the 
revealed Word of God. 



177 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER 8th 

IT is interesting to us to know that the Immac- 
ulate Conception of Mary has been inter- 
woven in the earliest history of our own coun- 
try. The ship that first bore Columbus to 
America was named Mary of the Conception. 
This celebrated navigator gave the same name 
to the second island which he discovered. 

DECE3IBEII 9th 

IT is the destiny of truth in this world to have 
not only its courageous champions, but also 
its bitter antagonists. Its- light, which is grate- 
ful to docile minds, is irritating to rebellious 
spirits. Its voice is melody to the soul that is 
attuned to virtue, but discord to the ear of him 
who is out of harmony with God. 



178 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBON& 



BECEMBEK 10th 

IN commenting on the life of our Divine 
Saviour, we are usually inclined to lay partic- 
ular stress on His tenderness of heart. His ami- 
able disposition. His meekness of character and 
His compassion for suffering humanity. But 
in gazing so intently on these sweet traits of 
our Lord, are we not apt to overlook His sturdy 
manhood and force of character? If Christ is 
called the *'Lamb of God," He is also called 
the **Lion of the fold of Juda." 

Those eyes that were m.oistened with tears at 
the tomb of Lazarus, flash v/ith righteous indig- 
nation when He denounces the desecration of 
God's temple. The hand that was habitually 
raised to bless innocent youth and repentant 
sinners is lifted up to smite the money-changers 
that profaned His Father's house. 



179 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER 11th 
ONSCIENCE is the practical judgment 



pravity of our acts. It is the expression of that 
Divine Justice by which society is upheld and 
bound together. It is the living witness and 
interpreter of that natural **law written in our 
hearts" v/hich is the basis of all human legisla- 
tion. It is the echo of the voice of God. 




upon the moral rectitude or de- 



180 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER 12th 

HUMAN respect is a vice diametrically op- 
posed to the virtue of Christian manhood. 
It is a base condescension by which a man, 
either from the dread of offending others, or 
from the hope of conciliating their friendship 
and good-vvill, speaks or acts against his own 
intimate convictions. ^ ^ * The fear of 
popular prejudice, where religion is concerned, 
is the most criminal form of cowardice, because 
it places the creature above the Creator. 



181 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 

DECEMBER 13th 
^HE question may be asked. What is the 



JL greatest need of our times for the better- 
ment of Christian society? What the times 
call for is men, sturdy Christian men, en- 
dowed with the courage of their convictions. 
We need men who are controlled by conscience 
rather than by expediency, men who are guided 
by principle rather than by popularity, men 
who are influenced by a sense of duty and not 
by self-interest, who are swayed by a spirit of 
patriotism rather than by a desire of political 
preferment. 

Above all, we need men of strong Christian 
faith, who are prepared to uphold their religious 
convictions in the face of obloquy and popular 
prejudice. 




182 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBOXS 



DECEMBER 14th 

THE man who calmly fulfils a duty against 
public clamor displays a higher courage 
than the general who captures cities. 

DECEMBER 15 th 

THERE is a barbarism more dense than 
the barbarism of the savage tribes of the 
forest. For the children of the forest, taught 
by the God of nature, adored the Great Spirit. 
I speak of a mental obtuseness which elimi- 
nates God and an overruling Providence from 
the moral government of the world, which takes 
no account of a life to come and of the respon- 
sibilities attached to it. 



183 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER 16th 

THE history of nations clearly demonstrates 
that it is much easier to convert a Pagan 
people to Christianity than to reconvert a na- 
tion that has once apostatized. The words of 
the Apostle contain a profound truth and a 
fearful warning. It is morally impossible, he 
says, for those who were once illuminated by 
faith, who were made partakers of the Holy 
Ghost and who are fallen away by apostasy, 
to return once more to the Faith of the 
Fathers ! 

DECEMBEK 17th 

GOD is indeed infinitely merciful, but His 
mercy cannot absorb His other attributes; 
it cannot run counter to His justice, His sanc- 
tity and that moral order He has established in 
the world. 



184 



UAXniS OF CARDIXAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER 18th 

OUR liberty is a weapon with which, like 
Saul, we may inflict a deadly wound upon 
ourselves, or it is a sword, with which, like 
Michael the Archangel, we can conquer the 
infernal enemy and win our way to Heaven. 

DECEMBER 19th 

IF all human beings in this world, and all 
living creatures, and all inanimate objects 
were burned as a holocaust to the Lord, they 
would not confer as much praise on the Al- 
mighty as a single Eucharistic sacrifice. These 
earthly creatures, how numerous and excellent 
soever, are finite and imperfect, while the offer- 
ing made ^n the Mass is of infinite value, for it 
is our Lord Jesus, the acceptable Lamb with- 
out blemish, the beloved Son in whom the 
Father is well pleased. 



185 



MAXIMS OF CARDIXAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER 20th 

THE noblest edifice ever erected by the 
hand of man, from Solomon's temple down 
to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, is but a perish- 
able monument compared to the temple of the 
soul when it is illumined with the light of faith 
and adorned with the jewels of virtue. 

DECEMBER 21st 

TKE Priest should be like those angels 
whom Jacob saw in a vision ascending to 
Heaven and descending therefrom on a mys- 
tical ladder. He is expected to ascend by 
prayer and to descend by preaching. He 
ascends to Heaven to receive light from God; 
he descends to communicate that light to his 
hearers. He ascends to light his torch at the 
ever-burning furnace of Divine love; he de- 
scends to communicate the flame to the souls 
of his people. 

ISG 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER 22d 
ET us become so assiduous in meditating 



-L^on the Word of God, that we may be said 
to live and move in that spiritual world v/hich 
the sacred writers have portrayed for us. There 
is a grace in the Inspired Word, both to the 
speaker and the hearer, and an efficacy such 
as no human production can possess. 

DECEMBER 23d 
T ITTLE do we imagine in our age of steam 



-"printing how much labor it cost the Church 
to preserve and perpetuate the Sacred Scrip- 
tures. Learned monks, who are now abused 
in their graves by thoughtless men, were con- 
stantly employed in copying with the pen the 
Holy Bible. When one monk died at his post, 
another took his place, watching like a faith- 
ful sentinel over the treasure of God's Word. 





187 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER 34th 
EARLY two thousand years ago Jesus 



J. 1 Christ founded a spiritual republic. He 
established it not by the material sword, but 
by the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word 
of God. He established it not by brute force, 
but by an appeal to the conscience and intellect 
of humanity. And the spiritual kingdom that 
He founded exists to this day, and is contin- 
ually extending its lines. It is maintained, not 
by standing armies, but by the invincible influ- 
ence of religious and moral sanction. 




188 



MAXIM;^ OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER S5th 

WHO is it that gladdens today the hearts 
of young and old, of rich and poor, and 
of pilgrim, and that knits again the bonds of 
family love? All are warmed by the rays that 
emanate from the Babe of Bethlehem. The 
Festival of Christmas is only to be recalled to 
mind in order to fill us with mingled sentiments 
of joy and exultation, of love and gratitude. 
It is a mystery more suggestive of silent medi- 
tation than of noise of words. What is the 
mystery we celebrate? Let me briefly an- 
nounce it. **The Word was made flesh, and 
dwelt amongst us, and we saw His glory, the 
glory, as it were, of the Only Begotten of the 
Father, full of grace and truth.*' 



iS9 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER S6th 

CHRIST is not like other great men who 
have appeared on the theatre of life, have 
played their part and disappeared from view. 
He is not a meteor that flashed across the firma- 
ment of the world and was suddenly extin- 
guished. No, He is the Sun of Justice shining 
on men down the ages, enlightening their minds, 
warming their hearts, and causing the fruits 
of grace and sanctification to grow in their 
souls. 

DECEMBER 27th 

EVER since the Son of God chose a woman 
to be His mother, man looks up to woman 
with a homage akin to veneration. 



190 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECEMBER 2Sth 

EACH new discovery of science is a trophy 
with which religion loves to adorn her al- 
tars. She hails every fresh invention as another 
voice adding its harmonious notes to that grand 
choir which is ever singing the praises of the 
God of Nature. 

DECEMBER 29th 

BLESSED are ye, my Brethren, if you live 
in an abiding consciousness of an over- 
ruling Providence. The world is not an enigma 
to you as to others. It is a mirror reflecting 
your Father's countenance. It is an open Bible 
in which you read God's dealings with His 
creatures. No event will startle or confound 
you, or shake your faith, because you know 
that everything that occurs, from the fall of an 
empire to the flight of a bird, is controlled by 
the Moral Governor of the World, 



191 



MAXIMS OF CARDINAL GIBBONS 



DECEMEEK SOth 

I FEEL, O Lord, unworthy to pronounce 
Thy sacred name — a name which is worthy 
of angelic adoration, which is terrible to de- 
mons, a name which no one, says St. Paul, 
can utter with due respect, unless inspired by 
the Holy Ghost. 

DECEMBER 31st 

OTHOU, Who art the Father of Light 
and the Dispenser of every good and per- 
fect gift, cast a ray of Thy Divine light on our 
beloved country, that the spiritual and moral 
growth of the nation may keep pace with its 
material prosperity. Teach us to realize the 
fact that saving knowledge consists in knowing 
and worshipping Thee. Teach us that he 
alone is free who enjoys the glorious liberty of 
the children of God; that he alone is truly 
rich who abounds in grace and righteousness; 
that he alone is great v/ho is virtuous. 



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